606 LAWS OF MARYLAND.

as the Baltimore City Court may deem necessary to attend, and
examine them on oath or affirmation; and may permit and
require all such explanation, amendments and additions to be
made to and of the proceedings as the court shall deem requi-
site. The person or the city appealing to the said Baltimore
City Court shall have a trial before the court without the inter-
vention of a jury, and the court, sitting without a jury, shall
hear the case de novo, and shall ascertain and decide on the
proper assessment, or classification, of the property for the
year involved in the appeal; and neither the action, nor the
record of the proceedings, of the judges of the Appeal Tax
Court in the premises shall be held to be, or declared void for
any reason whatsoever; provided due notice of the proceedings
shall have been given to the parties entitled by said judges of
the said Appeal Tax Court; and the said Baltimore City Court
shall assess anew, or classify anew, as the case may be, the
property forming the subject of the appeal; provided, however,
that in the absence of any affirmative evidence to the contrary,
the assessment or classification appealed from shall be affirmed.
The said City Court shall cause the proceedings and, decisions
on said appeals to be entered in the book containing the record
of proceedings of the said Baltimore City Court, certified by
the clerk under the seal of the Baltimore City Court, and the
book to be transmitted, to the judges of the said Appeal Tax
Court, which shall be final and conclusive in every respect,
unless an appeal be taken to the Court of Appeals. Such
record book or copy of the proceedings therein, or any part of
such proceedings, whether in or out of court, certified by the
judges of the said Appeal Tax Court, under seal of said city,
shall be evidence in any court in this State, and the judge of
said Baltimore City Court shall have full power, in his dis-
cretion, to require the cost of any appeal or any part thereof
to be paid by all or any of the appellants or by the city, as the
circumstances of each appeal, in his opinion, shall justify. In
no case shall any such appeal stay or suspend the power or
duty of the city to levy or collect taxes upon the property
involved in said appeal, but such levy and collection shall pro-
ceed in all respects as if no appeal had been taken. If a final
judgment shall not be given in time to enable the assessors,
judges of the Appeal Tax Court, or other officers to make a new
or correct statement of the assessment, or classification, for
the use of the proper authorities in levying taxes, and if it
shall appear from such judgment that said assessment was
unequal or said assessment or classification was illegal or
erroneous, then there shall be audited, allowed and paid to the
petitioner by the Comptroller the amount, with interest thereon