ALBERT C. RITCHIE, GOVERNOR.                1377

essary, shall by the commission be deposited with the clerk of
the circuit court for the county in which the property to be
taken lies; and thereupon the commission shall, by advertise-
ment inserted three times successively in one or more news-
papers published in said county, give notice to the parties in-
terested (naming them) that such final report has been depos-
ited, and that after the expiration of twenty-one days from the
date of the first publication the said report will become (and
the same shall become) absolute and final as against all per-
sons who shall not in the meantime have appealed therefrom to
such circuit court. Every such appeal shall, upon order of the
appellant's attorney, be docketed as a separate case in the name
of the appellant against the State of Maryland. Accompany-
ing such order shall be a statement of the grounds upon which
the appeal is based, and every such appeal shall be heard as
promptly as may be on such day as the court shall fix. The
appellant shall be entitled to have the amount of his damages
or benefits assessed by a jury, and shall have the right to appeal
to the court of appeals on any question of law involved. At
every such inquisition the State shall proceed as if party plain-
tiff, and the costs in the circuit court shall be paid by the State.
If no such appeal from the report of the commission shall be
taken, or when all such appeals have been finally disposed of,
it shall be lawful for the State Roads Commission (if for any
reason such course may become necessary) to pay into court,
under an order of the judge thereof, the amount due to any
person in interest, and thereupon the title to the property so
paid for shall be vested in the State of Maryland. In addition
to publishing the notice of the preliminary report herein pro-
vided for, the commission shall cause a printed copy of such
notice to be mailed to the persons interested, so far as their
postoffice addresses are known or can reasonably be ascertained;
provided, however, that such action shall not be deemed a pre-
requisite to the validity of the proceeding. If any of the par-
ties in interest residing in this State are within the age or
non compos mentis or other contractual disability and are not
represented by a guardian, committee or trustee, it shall be the
duty of the commission to certify such fact to the court at the
time of filing its final report, and thereupon the court shall
make such order for the protection of the rights of such person
under disability as may be proper.

26. It shall be lawful for the State Roads Commission to
make, from time to time, such changes as to it may seem
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