888 LAWS OF MARYLAND. [Gu. 402

ing work, to be known as ''County Road EnginCHer for Wicom-
ico County," at a salary of not less than fifteen hundred dollars
nor more than two thousand dollars a year, payable monthly,
and, in addition thereto, a sum not exceeding three hundred
dollars annually, to cover all actual and necessary expenses in-
curred by him in discharge of his official duties hereunder;
and the said County Road Engineer shall hold office for two
years from the first Tuesday of June, 1922, unless sooner re-
moved for cause or by the County Commissioners as herein-

after provided; and the County Commissioners shall make such
appointments without any reference whatever to the political
opinions of the person so appointed.

116. The said County Road Engineer shall not be liable to
removal from office for any reason other than immorality, in-
competency or wilful neglect of duty and then upon the sworn
complaint of ten or more resident taxpayers of Wicomico Coun-
ty, to be filed with the said County Commissioners, or upon
complaint by the clerk of the County Commissioners, filed by
their direction; and every such complaint shall state specifi-
cally the nature and character of the charges preferred, of
which due notice shall be given the said County Road Engi-
neer; and if the said County Commissioners, after hearing
such charges, at which the engineer and the parties making
complaint shall be entitled to be represented by counsel and
to produce any competent testimony, shall find that said County
Road Engineer is immoral, incompetent or has been guilty of
wilful neglect of duty, it shall be their duty to immediately
remove said County Road Engineer from office; but either
party to such hearing shall be entitled to an appeal from the
decision of said County Commissioners to the Circuit Court for
Wicomico County; provided, that such appeal is taken within
five days thereafter; and when such appeal shall be made in
writing, it shall be the duty of the clerk to the County Com-
missioners to at once file all papers, with the ruling of the
County Commissioners, with the clerk to the Circuit Court for
said county, and the clerk to the Circuit Court shall place said
appeal on the Appeal Docket of said court, which appeal shall
be heard de novo without the intervention of a jury in recess
or in term time; and the court shall fix a date for hearing of
said appeal, of which date the appellant and appellee shall
have at least five days' notice, and the clerk shall issue sub-
poenas for witnesses, and the court may affirm or overrule the
action of the County Commissioners as to removing or not
removing said engineer and may award costs. But if the order