532 LAWS OF MARYLAND. [CH. 331

The annual benefit assessments or other charges as above
specified shall be a first lien upon the property against which
they are assessed until paid, any statute of limitations to
the contrary notwithstanding, subject only to prior State and
County taxes.

If any property be sold for State and/or county taxes
by the Treasurer of said county; and if after sale there be
a surplus and after all expenses shall have been paid; then
the said Commission upon proper Petition to the Circuit
Court for said county shall be allowed any balance from said
surplus, and shall be a preferred Lienor to the extent of its
lien, and for the purpose of giving notice to the general
public as to existing liens and charges against any property
within any sanitary district abutting upon any water or
sewer main, the said Commission shall keep a public record
of all names or owners of property, locations of said property,
lot numbers when of record, and the amount of such benefit
charges, water service charges or such other charges that
may become liens from time to time.

Said records shall be kept in the county seat of government
and among the land records of Anne Arundel County, and the
Clerk of the Circuit Court for said county shall furnish such
space as may be necessary to keep and preserve such records,
which when published in said public record shall be legal
notice of all existing liens within any sanitary district.

If any liens, benefit assessments or other charges remain
unpaid for sixty days after becoming due, they may be col-
lected by an action of assumpsit or by a bill in equity to
enforce such liens, and any judgment or decree obtained,
where the Defendants have been served by summons or sub-
poena, shall have the force and effect of a judgment in per-
sonam, and the Commission may sue, or file a bill in equity
to enforce said liens, the owner of record at the time said
levy was made, or the owner of record at the time said suit
is filed or any owner of record between said dates, and publi-
cation thereon shall be notice to all persons having any in-
terest in said property.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That this Act is hereby
declared to be an emergency law and necessary for the im-
mediate preservation of the public health and safety, and
being passed by a yea and nay vote, supported by three-fifths
of all the members elected to each of the two Houses of the
General Assembly, the same shall take effect from the date
of its passage.

Approved April 16, 1947.