PHILLIPS LEE GOLDSBOROUGH, GOVERNOR. 491

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 bind-
ing 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 persons 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 prop-
erty charged therewith, and with priority over pre-existing in-
cumbrance, and may be collected by the Treasurer or contractor
or owner of the lien as any other claim in any Court of com-
petent 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 instalments shall bear interest as hereinafter pro-
vided. 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 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
action 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 equivalent of such notice of and demand of payment.