PHILLIPS LEE GOLDSBOROUGH, GOVERNOR. 1307

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 incum-
brance, and may be collected by the Treasurer or contractor
or owner, of the lien as any other claim in any Court of compe-
tent 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 bills, 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 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 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 conclusive of the facts therein stated, and any person
who may be injured by a false return shall have his right of ac-
tion for damages 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 equiva-
lent 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 Section shall be-
so construed as to prevent the party charged with the payment;