3622 ARTICLE 16.

the County assessments or other information in the Treasurer's office,
and the Treasurer shall certify on each special tax bill that the amount
named in the same is the proper proportional amount with which each
piece of property binding or abutting on such sewer or water main is
chargeable under the contract and general expenses chargeable for the
construction thereof as herein provided, and the Treasurer shall enter on
the plats the amount of each such special tax bill against each piece of
property, and when the bill is paid shall so note upon the plats. In every
such tax bill there shall be designated, at the option of the person or per-
sons or firm or corporation entitled to such tax bills, the name of some
bank or trust company located and doing business in said County to whom
payment of such bill may be made.

Such tax bill shall be and become a first lien on the property charged
therewith, and with priority over pre-existing incumbrance, and may be
collected by the Treasurer or contractor or owner of the lien as any other
claim in any Court of competent jurisdiction, with interest at the rate
of six per cent, per annum after thirty days from notice of its issuance,
as herein provided, and if not paid within six months after such notice,
then at the rate of eight per cent, per annum from the date of said notice;
provided, however, that special tax bills payable in installments shall 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 in-
terest 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 and each of them owned at the time the lien of the tax bill
commenced 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 siich service shall be
made in the same manner provided by law for the service of writs of sum-
mons in civil cases. The return of the Sheriff as to service shall be con-
clusive of the facts therein stated, and any person who may be injured
by a false return shall have his right of action for damages resulting there-
from 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 exe-
cution 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 noth-
ing in this Section shall be so construed as to prevent the party charged

with the payment of said bill from setting up by way of defense, in reduc-