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Reversioner intending to purchase must give 6 months notice to tenant,
then on petition and notice served 21 days before on tenant,
then or next sessions a jury shall try the value,
on verdict sum declared in open court,
which sum if not paid on or before the next session, the property in tenant.
who may by day, cut and take away months next ensuing, without compensation save for wanton damage, on affidavit valued, &c.
if more than 1 claiming to be purchasers, decided at sessions, remotest preferred.
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X. Provided always, and be it enacted, That if any person intitled to the reversion or inheritance of said lands mediately or immediately, shall be inclined to purchase said trees, such person may at any time within six calendar months, serve a notice in writing to said tenant to desist from cutting said trees, who on receipt of such notice is hereby enjoined to desist from cutting the same; and the said persons so intitled to the reversion or inheritance, may apply by petition to the justices at some quarter sessions of the peace for said county, or county of a city, setting forth his, her, or their title, and his, her, or their intention to purchase said trees, and upon said petition received, and proof made to the said justices, that notice was duly served on said tenant, twenty one days before the quarter sessions, of the landlord’s intention to apply to said justices at said quarter sessions, by petition as aforesaid, then the said justices shall, either at said quarter sessions, or at the next ensuing, at their discretion, cause a jury to be impannelled, which jury shall try and determine the value of said trees, allowing for the expence of selling them, and for the damage that would be incurred by so doing; and the justices shall, on receiving the verdict, immediately declare in open court, the sum to be paid by the inheritor or reversioner for said trees; and if the said reversioner or inheritor shall not pay to the said tenant, or to his or her legal representative, the sum so awarded, or lodge the same with the county treasurer, for the use of the said tenant, or his or her representative, at or before the general quarter sessions then next ensuing, then the justices at said next quarter sessions shall declare in open court, that the said trees are the property of said tenant, or his or her representative; and the same shall have power to enter upon said lands, and to cut and take away said trees at any and all times during six months then next ensuing, between sun-rise, and sun-set, without paying any compensation for the damage he shall do, unless be shall commit wanton and unnecessary damage, upon affidavit whereof the next resident justice shall cause the said wanton and unnecessary damage to be valued by two neighbours, who, in case of difference shall call in a third; and if there shall be more persons than one claiming to become purchasers of said trees, at the proper time of claiming as aforesaid, the justices at said sessions, shall, in a summary way, decide which claimant shall be preferred, preferring the more remote inheritor or reversioner, to the more immediate.
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