PHILLIPS LEE GOLDSBOROUGH, ESQ., GOVERNOR. 815

bear interest as hereinafter provided. In suits to enforce the
lien of a special tax bill, all or any one of the owners of the
land charged, or of any interest or estate therein, may be made
defendants, and a judgment in such suit shall bind all the right,
title, interest and estate in the land that the defendants ana
each of them owned at the time the lien of the tax bill com-
menced or acquired afterward. It shall be the duty of the
sheriff of Montgomery county at the request of the holder or
owner of any tax bills issued under this act, to serve upon the
party or parties named in such tax bill a notice of the issuance
thereof, which such service shall be made in the same manner
provided by law for the service of writs of summons in civil
cases. The return of the sheriff as to service shall be conclu-
sive of the facts therein stated, and any person who may be
injured by a false return shall have his right of action for dam-
ages resulting therefrom against the sheriff on his official bond.
For the service of each notice the sheriff shall be entitled to
one-half of the fee that may by law be allowed for the service
of a writ of summons. Whenever the sheriff shall make a
return of "not found" against any party, the institution of the
suit thereafter shall be deemed and taken to be the equivalent
of such notice of and demand of payment. In case the owner
of the ground is a non-resident of the county, suit may be
brought by attachment, which shall be equivalent to notice and
demand for payment.

Such certified bills shall in all cases be prima facie evidence
of the execution of the work, and of the correctness of the
rates and prices, amount thereof, and of the liability of any
person therein named as the owner of the land, charged with
such bill, to pay the same; provided, that nothing in this sec-
tion shall be so construed as to prevent the party charged witb
the payment of said bill from setting up by way of defense, in
reduction of the amount of the same, that the work was not
done in a good and workmanlike manner, according to the class
of work mentioned in the contract, and that such party, before
the commencement of the suit, tendered to the contractor a fair
value of such work done, and if he shall establish the same on
trial the recovery shall only be for the amount so tendered, and
judgment for costs shall be rendered against the plaintiff.

The county shall not be liable in any manner whatever for
or on account of any work done which is to be paid for by
special tax bills.

Provided, however, that every special tax bill authorized by
this act to be levied or assessed for the construction or re-con-