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Inquisition—
how and when
taken.
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SEC. 12. And be it enacted, That the president and
directors of said company, or any person or persons au-
thorised by them, may agree with the owner or owners
of any land, earth, timber, gravel, stone, or other mate-
rials, or any improvements, which may be wanted for
the construction of said road, or any of its works, for the
purchase or use and occupation of the same, and if they
cannot agree, and if the owner or owners of any them
be a feme covert, under age, non compos mentis, or out
of the county, in which the properly, other than ware-
houses and quarries, wanted may lie, when the same
may be wanted, application may be made to any justice
of the peace of the county, who shall thereupon issue
his warrant, under hand and seal, directed to the sheriff
of the county, requiring him to summon a jury of twen-
ty inhabitants of the county, not related or in anywise
interested in the premises, to meet on the land or near
to the other properly or materials, as before described to
be valued, on a day named in the same warrant, not less
than ten nor more than twenty days after the issuing of
the same, and if at such time and place any of said jury
shall not attend, the said sheriff shall immediately
summon as many jurors as may be necessary, with the
jury in attendence, to furnish a panel of twenty ju-
rors in attendance, and from them, each parly, or his,
her or their agents, or if .either be not present, the she-
riff for him, her, it or them, may strike out four jurors,
ami the remaining twelve shall act as a jury of inquest
of damages, and before they act as such, the said she-
riff shall administer to each of them an oath, or affirma-
tion, as the case may be, that he will justly and impar-
tially value the damages which the owner or owners
will sustain, by the use and occupation of the same, re-
quired by the company, and the jury, in estimating such
damages, shall take into estimate the benefits resulting
to the said owner or owners, by the construction of said
rail road through the property of said owner or owners,
but only in extinguishment of the claim for damages,
and the said jury shall reduce their inquisition to writ-
ing, and shall sign and seal the same, and it shall then
be returned by said sheriff to the clerk of the county, and
by such clerk filed in his court, and shall be confirmed
by said court, at its next session, if no sufficient cause to
the contrary be shown, and when confirmed, shall be
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