an estate in land."[668]

Due Process in Eminent Domain

(1) Notice.--If the owner of property sought to be condemned is
a nonresident, personal notice is not requisite and service may be
effected by publication.[669] In fact, "it has been uniformly held that
statutes providing for * * * condemnation of land may adopt a procedure
summary in character, and that notice of such proceedings may be
indirect, provided only that the period of notice of the initiation of
proceedings and the method of giving it are reasonably adapted to the
nature of the proceedings and their subject matter." Insofar as
reasonable notice is deemed to be essential, that requirement was
declared to have been satisfied by a statute providing that notice of
initiation of proceedings for establishment of a county road be
published on three successive weeks in three successive issues of a
paper published in the county, and that all meetings of the county
condemning agency be public and published in a county newspaper.[670]

(2) Hearing.--The necessity and expediency of a taking being
legislative questions irrespective of who may be charged with their
decision, a hearing thereon need not be afforded;[671] but the mode of
determining the compensation payable to an owner must be such as to
furnish him with an opportunity to be heard. Among several admissible
modes is that of causing the amount to be assessed by viewers, or by a
jury, generally without a hearing, but subject to the right of the owner
to appeal for a judicial review thereof at which a trial on the evidence
may be had. Through such an appeal the owner obtains the hearing to
which he is entitled;[672] and the fact that after having been
adequately notified of the determination by the condemning authorities,
the former must exercise his right of appeal within a limited period
thereafter, such as 30 days, has been held not so arbitrary as to
deprive him of property without due process of law.[673] Nor is there
any "denial of due process in making the findings of fact by the triers
of fact, whether commissioners or a jury, final as to such facts [that
is, conclusive as to the mere value of the property], and leaving open
to the courts simply the inquiry as to whether there was any erroneous
basis adopted by the triers in their appraisal, * * *"[674]

(3) Occupation in Advance of Condemnation.--Due process does
require that condemnation precede occupation by the condemning authority
so lon