464 LAWS OF MARYLAND.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Mary-
land, That in any and all cases of sales of property by the
Sheriff or ex-Sheriff of Cecil County for the purpose of en-
forcing the collection of any municipal, County or State taxes,
where there shall remain in the hands of said Sheriff or ex-
Sheriff after the payment of said taxes and proper interest
thereon and all legal costs and expenses in connection with said
sale and the collection of said taxes, a surplus of the proceeds of
such sale, and it shall be uncertain who is entitled to receive
said surplus or any portion thereof, or some or all of those
persons entitled to receive said surplus shall be non-residents of
the State of Maryland, and whether said person or persons are
adults or infants, and whether said persons are non compos
mentis or not, it shall be lawful for any person interested in or
entitled in any way to any part of said surplus to file a peti-
tion in the Circuit Court for Cecil County in the proceedings
under which said tax sale was had, in which petition shall be
set forth the facts on which the interest of the petitioner in
said surplus is based and asking that all persons interested in
said surplus may be required to come into Court to prove their
claims to said surplus, and that distribution of said surplus
shall be made by said Sheriff or ex-Sheriff to the persons en-
titled thereto; and thereupon the said Court may pass an order
directing that notice of the substance and object of such peti-
tion shall be given to all persons interested in said surplus by
actual service upon them if they are known and are residents
of the State of Maryland, and if they are not known or are
non-residents of the State of Maryland, and whether infants or
adults, and whether non compos mentis or of sound mind, by
publication of said notice in some newspaper published in Cecil
County once a week for three successive weeks warning them to
appear by day to be named in said order and notice and answer
said petition and prove their respective claims to said surplus;
and at any time after the day upon which appearance and
answer is required to be made as aforesaid, said petitioner or
any person who may have appeared and answered said petition
may upon proper application to said Court ask to have said
proceedings referred to the Auditor of the Court with direc-
tions to take such testimony as may be produced to him by any
of the parties interested, touching the matter of said petition
and from said testimony and proceedings to state an account
distributing said surplus which said account the said Auditor
shall with the testimony taken by him return to the Court on
or before a day to be named by said Court and thereupon the