Any corporation authorized by law to appropriate land, real estate, premises, or other property for right-of-way or any other corporate purposes, may present to the superior court of the county in which any land, real estate, premises, or other property sought to be appropriated shall be situated, or to the judge of such superior court in any county where he or she has jurisdiction or is holding court, a petition in which the land, real estate, premises, or other property sought to be appropriated shall be described with reasonable certainty, and setting forth the name of each and every owner, encumbrancer, or other person or party interested in the same, or any part thereof, so far as the same can be ascertained from the public records, the object for which the land is sought to be appropriated, and praying that a jury be impaneled to ascertain and determine the compensation to be made in money, irrespective of any benefit from any improvement proposed by such corporation, to such owner or owners, respectively, and to all tenants, encumbrancers, and others interested, for the taking or injuriously affecting such lands, real estate, premises, or other property, or in case a jury be waived as in other civil cases in courts of record in the manner prescribed by law, then that the compensation to be made, as aforesaid, be ascertained and determined by the court, or judge thereof.