rant and such warrant may be in the form heretofore used in the Land Office, and may be either a common warrant, a special warrant, a warrant of resurvey, a proclamation warrant, or an escheat warrant, whichever may be suited to the case of the party applying for the same. Where vacant in different 19. If the vacant land or land which has escheated lies partly Art. 54, s. 18. in one county and partly in another, the warrant to survey the or escheat lands same may be directed to and executed by the surveyor of either counties. county. Common, spe cial or procla rants, pay for. mation war 33 Md. 95. 20. Any person may obtain a common warrant, special warrant 1861, c. 3, s. 2. or proclamation warrant by applying to the commissioner of the Land Office, and paying him (unless the land lies in Alleghany or Washington counties) the sum of twenty-five cents per acre for each acre mentioned in such warrant, and if the land lies in Alleghany county, the sum of ten cents per acre, and if the land lies in Washington county, the sum of twelve and a half cents per acre. 21. Any person being the owner in fee simple of any lands, may obtain, by application to the commissioner of the Land Office, a warrant of resurvey to resurvey said land, whether the same consists vacancy. of one or several tracts or parts of tracts, and add any contiguous vacancy thereto. Art. 54. s. 20. Warrant of re survey and adding contiguous 1839, c. 34, s. 1; Warrant of re adding contigu- 22. Any person entitled to lands in fee simple, and being in Id. s. 21. possession thereof and not desiring to add contiguous vacancy, 1841, c. 333; may obtain a warrant of resurvey from the Land Office, and it shall 1854, c. 322, s. 1; not be necessary in such warrant to state the name of the tract or survey without tracts of land to be resurveyed, and the surveyor of the county to whom such warrant shall be directed shall survey the lands to be 237. affected thereby, according to the possession and holding of the person obtaining such warrant, or those under whom he claims for the last twenty years, and shall take proof of such possession and holding. 1854, c. 322, s. 2. cution to be given. 23. The surveyor, before he executes any warrant issued under 1a. s. 22. the preceding section, shall give reasonable notice to the owners Notice of exeand occupiers of all the adjacent lands, if the same be occupied, if the owners reside in the county where the lands lie, and if the adjacent lands be occupied or unoccupied, and the owners do not reside in the county, the surveyor shall give notice of the time he will execute such warrant by advertisement in some daily newspaper published in the city of Baltimore, not less than six times, and the first publication to be at least two months before the execution of such warrant. 24. The surveyor shall return to the Land Office, within one year from the date of such warrant, a certificate of survey and plot, together with the depositions relating to the possession and occupancy of the lands resurveyed, and proof of the notice, by publication or otherwise, given to the owners or occupiers of the adjacent lands, and upon the return of such certificate and proofs, if no Id. s. 23. 1854, c. 322, s. 3. certificate to be returned. Id. s. 24. 1781, c. 20, s. 8. When escheat warrant to issue. Id. s. 25. 1849, c. 424, s. 2. When to be executed. 22 Md. 239. 1861, c. 3, s. 3. What to be paid by warrantees of vacant or escheat lands. Id. s. 4. Failure to pay. Id. s. 5. Art. 54, s. 28. 1781, c. 20, s. 9. Value of escheat lands and improvements, how fixed. 1861, c. 3, s. 6. Return of certificate and renewal of warrant. Art. 54, s. 30. 1795, c. 88, s. 7. Certificates of survey to be examined. Corrected certificate. caveat or objection be made within six months after such return, the commissioner of the Land Office shall issue a patent thereon to the person, or his heirs or assigns, who obtained such warrant of resurvey. 25. Any person may obtain an escheat warrant by application to the commissioner of the Land Office, unless some other person has obtained or is entitled to a warrant affecting the land. 26. Every escheat warrant shall be executed within twelve months, and no escheat warrant shall be renewed after one year from its date. 27. Every person who has obtained a warrant to survey vacant or escheat land, shall, within one year from the date of such warrant, pay for the land included in the certificate of survey at the following rates for vacant land not in Alleghany or Washington counties, fifty cents per acre, and if in Alleghany county, twenty cents per acre, and if in Washington county twenty-five cents per acre, and shall in addition pay the value of any improvements there may be on any such vacant land, but there shall be deducted from the purchase-money aforesaid the sum which the party paid upon obtaining the warrant, and for land which has escheated two-thirds of the real value of the same. If any person shall fail to pay within one year, as required by the preceding sections, the land may be taken up by any other person under a proclamation warrant or escheat warrant, as the case may be. 28. The person who first applies to the commissioner of the Land Office for a warrant during business hours shall be entitled to the same upon paying the usual fees and caution-money. 29. The value of all escheat lands and the improvements thereon, and the real value of any improvements upon vacant land, shall be returned and certified to by the surveyor, on oath, at the time of returning his certificate of survey, and the commissioner of the Land Office shall finally ascertain the value of such land and improvements, and receive the money therefor from the party, but the omission by the surveyor to return such valuation shall in no case be a cause of caveat. 30. Every certificate of survey shall be returned to the Land Office within one year from the date of the warrant, but a warrant may be renewed within a year from its date, but not to affect the rights which any other person may have acquired in the meantime ; this not to apply to escheat warrants. 31. All certificates of survey returned under this article shall be examined by the commissioner of the Land Office, and if found to be correct, shall be by him recorded, and if found to be incorrect, he shall return them to the surveyor returning the same, or to some other surveyor as he may order and direct, ordering such surveyor to correct such certificate, and a corrected certificate shall be returned to the Land Office within one year from the date of such order. 1782, c. 38, s. 2. issue. 9 Md. 74: 21 Md. 27 Md. 149; 34 119; 23 Md. 432; Md. 428. 32. If a certificate of survey shall be returned within the time Id. s. 31. herein prescribed, and shall be found to be correct, and the whole When patent to composition or purchase-money has been paid, and such certificate bas laid six months in the Land Office and no caveat has been entered thereto, the person having such certificate returned, his assignee, devisee or heirs, shall be entitled to a patent thereon; or if the certificate is released by adjudication or by the operation of law from the effect of the caveat, a patent shall issue thereon as if no caveat had been filed. 1797, c. 114, s. 10. When caveat to 21 Md. 135; 34 be determined. 33. Every caveat shall be heard and determined by the com- Id. s. 32. missioner of the Land Office within twelve months from the entering of the same, unless he shall under special circumstances give further time to the parties. Md. 428; 38 Md. 81. 1797, c. 114, s. 8. 34. The commissioner of the Land Office shall have full power at Id. s. 33. his discretion to award costs to the party prevailing on the decision Commissioner of any caveat. to award costs. 1853, c. 21. signed and 35. All patents shall be signed by the governor and have affixed Id. s. 34. thereto the great seal of the State, and the governor, on the presen- Patents how tation to him of a patent by the commissioner of the Land Office, sealed. certified by the said commissioner as proper to be issued, shall be authorized to sign such patent, and to cause the great seal to be affixed thereto. Commissioner rules for sur 36. The commissioner of the Land Office may prescribe rules to Id. s. 35. regulate the conduct of surveyors in making surveys and returning to prescribe certificates and plats, and he shall in all things regulate his pro- veyors. ceedings by the usages and principles which have heretofore been established by the practice of the Land Office not inconsistent with this article or the principles of equity. 1785, c. 66, s. 7. Pennsylvania 37. Any person holding lands and being in actual possession Id. s. 36. thereof in this State under a warrant and survey, or under a patent Lands on the granted by the government of Pennsylvania before the divisional line may be line between the two States was fixed, shall be entitled to receive a patented, where. patent for such land from the proper authorities of this State. RIPARIAN RIGHTS. Owners of land waters entitled to accretions, 38. The proprietor of land bounding on any of the navigable 1862, c. 129, waters of this State, is hereby declared to be entitled to all accre- on navigable tions to said land by the recession of. said water, whether heretofore or hereafter formed or made by natural causes or otherwise, in like manner and to like extent as such right may or can be claimed Md. 432; 41 Md. by the proprietor of land bounding on water not navigable. 39. The proprietor of land bounding on any of the navigable waters of this State, is hereby declared to be entitled to the exclusive right of making improvements into the waters in front of his said land; such improvements, and other accretions as above provided for, shall pass to the successive owners of the land to which they are attached, as incident to their respective estates. But no etc. 22 Md. 530; 23 1862, c. 129. Patents not to affect rights of riparian proprietors. such improvement shall be so made as to interfere with the navigation of the stream of water into which the said improvement is made. 40. No patent hereafter issued out of the Land Office shall impair or affect the rights of riparian proprietors, as explained and declared in the two sections next preceding this section, and no patent land covered by shall hereafter issue for land covered by navigable waters. No patent for navigable waters. Art. 52, s. 4. Const. art. 7, 8. 4. 1854, c. 149, s. 3. To certify ceedings of the late Court of KEEPER OF THE CHANCERY RECORDS. 41. The said commissioner of the Land Office may certify copies copies and pro- and proceedings of the Court of Chancery in his possession, and where such certificates are required to be under seal, he shall affix Chancery in his his seal of office, and he shall charge the same fees for such services as the clerks of the Circuit Courts charge for similar services. possession. Fees. 42. He shall, without unnecessary delay, transmit to the Circuit Courts for the several counties, and the Circuit Court of Baltimore city, all the cases and proceedings in the said court undisposed of and unfinished, at the expense of the State, whether applied for by the counsel of the parties or the parties themselves, or not. 1874, c. 66. Custody of land record, papers and extracts. LAND RECORDS AND EXTRACTS OF DEEDS. 43. The commissioner of the Land Office shall have custody of all books containing deeds and transfers of soldiers' lots, and all other land record books and papers, including extracts of deeds removed and transferred to his office by the clerk of the Court of Appeals, by virtue of the act of Assembly of 1874, c. 66, and of all the other extracts of deeds which shall be received by him, and shall To give certified give certified copies of such deeds and extracts, and make searches copies thereof and make searches. Fees. 1874, c. 66, s. 5; 1876, c. 257. file extracts of deeds trans mitted and form record book. for the same when so required, and shall receive and retain therefor fees at the same rate now charged for copies of and searches for other papers in his office. 44. The said commissioner shall receive and carefully file among To receive and the records of his office all extracts of deeds transferred to him by virtue of the act of Assembly of 1874, c. 66, and all such as shall be transmitted to him by the clerks of the Circuit Courts of this State; and when he shall have received a sufficient number of such extracts from the same county to form a record book of the proper size, he shall cause the same to be carefully indexed and well and substantially bound in leather, and placed among the records of his office; and the comptroller of the treasury is hereby directed to issue his warrant for such sum or sums of money as from time to time may be necessary for the cost of such indexing and binding upon the certificate of the correctness of the same given by the said commissioner of the Land Office; and for the said indexing there shall be allowed and paid the same rates allowed by law to the clerks of the Circuit Courts for similar services. Indexing. As to "military lots westward of Fort Cumberland,” under act of 1788, c. 44, see 47 Md. 108, 39 Md. 288; 33 Md. 95; 27 Md. 604. TITLE X I. Surveyor. CONSTITUTION-ARTICLE VII-SEC. 2. CONSTITUTION-ARTICLE VII-SEC. 2. Surveyor: Vacancy. THE qualified voters of each county, and of the city of Baltimore, shall, on 1852, c. 50. the Tuesday next after the first Monday in the month of November, in the Surveyor. year eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, and on the same day in every second year thereafter, elect a surveyor for each county and the city of Baltimore, respectively, whose term of office shall commence on the first Monday of January next ensuing their election; and whose duties and compensation shall be the same as are now, or may hereafter be prescribed by law. And any vacancy Vacancy. in the office of surveyor, shall be filled by the commissioners of the counties or by the mayor and city council of Baltimore, respectively, for the residue of the term. ARTICLE XVII. SURVEYOR. 1. To execute warrants from Land Office and orders, etc., issued by courts. 2. To keep record of surveys. 3. Expense of books. 4. Deputies. 3. To administer oath to chain and pole car riers. 6. Who may be chain or pole carrier. 7. To summon witnesses on surveys; attendance, how compelled. 8. To insert course and distance of closing lines in certificate of survey. 9. To return value and improvement on land in certificate of survey. 10. Notice of warrant of resurvey. 11. To survey whole tract under escheat war- 12. When certificate returned by deputy after 13. Order for correction when surveyor re- 17. What, liable to pay to commissioner for 18. Not to mention boundaries without run- 1. The surveyor for each county and the city of Baltimore shall execute all warrants issued from the Land Office, and all orders or warrants issued by any court having authority to issue the same, and shall make return thereof within the time prescribed by law. 2. He shall keep a regular alphabetical record of the surveyor's duplicate of all surveys or resurveys made by him by virtue of a warrant issued from the Land Office. Art. 92, s. 1. 1849, c. 549. To execute warrants from orders, etc., Id. s. 2. 1849, c. 549, s. 2. of surveys. |