10 Pa. Super. 381 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1899
Opinion by
A concurrent resolution was passed, by a vote of two thirds of all the members elected to each branch of councils of the
The manner in which resolutions or ordinances are to be approved or disapproved by the mayor is determined by section 7, article 6 of the act. “Every legislative act of the councils shall be by resolution or ordinance, and every ordinance or resolution which shall have passed both branches shall be presented, duly certified, to the mayor for approval. If he approves he shall sign the same, but if he shall not approve, he shall return it, with his objections, to the branch of council wherein it originated, which shall thereupon proceed to reconsider it. . . . Every ordinance or resolution which the mayor shall not return within fifteen days from the date of its presentation to him, as aforesaid, shall become a law as fully and effectively as if he had approved the same.” This section applies wherever a resolution or an ordinance requires the approval of the mayor.
When a concurrent resolution declaring the purpose of a city of the third class to order a street to be paved at the expense of the abutting property, without a petition of the owners, has passed each branch of councils by the requisite vote, it must be certified and presented to the mayor for approval; if he does not return it disapproved within fifteen days it becomes a law, with like effect as if he had approved and signed the resolution. There is no conflict between article 5, section 3, clause 10, and article 6, section 7 of the act of May 23, 1889 • the first requires that the concurrent resolution be approved by the mayor and the second determines what action of the mayor shall constitute a legal approval. In the present case the mere deposit of the resolution by the mayor with the clerk was not a returning it to councils within the meaning of the act. If the mayor had desired to veto the resolution his only course, to accomplish that result, was to call a special session of the council in which the resolution originated, and return the resolution, with his objections, to that body: Morrellville Borough Annexation, 7
All the remaining assignments of error relate to the refusal of the court below to submit to the jury certain questions touching the regularity of the contract for the paving, entered into between the city and the use plaintiff. It clearly appears that all the preliminary steps, the passing of an ordinance directing the paving to be done, the preparation of specifications and the advertisement for bids, down to the actual letting of the contract, had been regularly taken. There was, therefore, no such lack of jurisdiction to make a contract as has been held fatal to a claim for benefits, resulting from a public improvement, in that line of cases of which Fell v. Philadelphia, 81 Pa. 58, is a leading example. Nor was there any want of proper certification by a municipal officer to make the contract of binding force, as was the case in Erie v. Moody, 176 Pa. 478. The only allegation of irregularity in the letting of the contract is that it was not awarded to the lowest responsible bidder, as required by statute. The legislation which applies is contained in section 6, article 4 of the Act of May 23, 1889, P. L. 277, “All other kinds of work to be done for the city, except ordinary repairs of highways, shall be performed under contract to be given to the lowest responsible bidder, under such regulations as shall be prescribed by. ordinance.” The evidence indicates that an ordinance, regulating the manner of bidding upon contracts, had been enacted, but the ordinance is not printed in the evidence, and in its absence we must assume that its provisions were observed. There was no violation of the act of assembly, for the contract was let at the lowest rate mentioned in any bid received, and the responsibility of the bidder was exclusively for the determination of councils. The direction of the statute, that contracts be awarded to the lowest responsible bidder, does not require the municipality to award the contract to the lowest bidder who is able pecuniarily to carry out his contract, but it may also take into consideration the judgment, skill and promptness of the several bidders. It vests
The contractor having completed the work, liens were filed, in the name of the city to his use, against the lot of defendant among others. Under the contract there was no liability upon the part of the city, the contractor having agreed to accept an assignment of the liens in payment for the work. The present case is a scire facias sur municipal lien against lot of defendant abutting upon the improvement. The real plaintiff is not the city but the contractor, this being the case, the defendant was
The Act of May 23, 1889, P. L. 277, entitled “ An act providing for the incorporation and government of cities of the third class,” vests the municipal authorities with jurisdiction to make contracts of the character of that under consideration, and requires that a contract shall be made before the work is done. In making the contract the municipal authorities are in a certain sense the agents of the property owners. All the requirements of the acts of assembly and the ordinances of the cities amount to nothing, if it be held that, when the provisions of such acts and ordinances, relating to the letting and execution of contracts, have been strictly complied with, a property owner in defending against an assessment may open up the question of the value of the entire work as fixed by the contract, without producing evidence indicating bad faith in the letting of the contract or defects in the performance of the work which the contract required. The purpose of requiring a contract to be made before the work is done, and of hedging about with conditions the manner in which the contract is awarded is that the work may be done by the lowest responsible bidder and that the municipal authorities and all parties interested may know in advance the probable cost of the improvement. When a contractor deals in good faith with municipal authorities who have jurisdiction to make the contract, which is awarded to him, without fraud, in accordance with the provisions of the acts of assembly and ordinances of the city, and does the work v hich he has undertaken as required by his contract, he is entitled to receive as the wages of his labor the amount agreed upon, as required by law, before the work was done.
Judgment affirmed.