148 Pa. 419 | Pa. | 1892
Opinion by
The municipal lien, on which the writ of scire facias in this case issued, was entered for the cost of paving Adams avenue along the front of defendant’s property. The paving of this avenue was done under an ordinance, approved Sept. 4, 1889, which provided for assessing the cost of the work on the property along the street according to the foot-front rule. The. assessment made upon the defendant’s property was not paid, and the lien now under consideration was filed in due form, in favor of the city, for the amount of the unpaid assessment. When the defendant was served with the scire facias he ap
1. The act of 1889 is local, as it is applicable to only one class of cities.
2. It creates and extends liens in cities of one class only.
3. It changes the practice in courts of law held in counties that contain a city of the third class as to a particular class of cases.
4. It changes the rules of evidence in such courts, so far as they relate to municipal liens.
5. It gives to a sheriff’s sale, upon a municipal lien in a city of the third class, an effect which it does not have elsewhere.
These are serious charges against the act of 1889, and if they appear, upon an examination of the 15th article of the act, to be well founded, the court below was right in the conclusion it reached. Turning, then, to the provisions of the act, we find they are intended to provide a system for the government of cities of the third class. They embrace all the members of the class, and furnish the same machinery and modes of procedure for all. Classification of cities for purposes of municipal government was recognized as valid in Wheeler v. The City, 77 Pa. 338. Laws limited in their operation to a single class of cities are not, therefore, within the constitutional prohibition of local legislation, if they relate to matters that are connected with the organization or the administration of the city government, or the regulation of municipal affairs : Ruan Street, 132 Pa. 257. If such laws relate to other
But some provision must be made for the collection of the assessment, and the act authorizes the entry of a municipal lien for the amount, if not paid when due. This is the method provided for collecting similar assessments in cities of the first
The learned judge was of opinion that this case was ruled by the Appeals of Engle et al., in re Opening of Wyoming St., 137 Pa. 494, but we do not think so. Those cases involved the validity of municipal liens, entered upon the awards of a “ board of viewers.” This board was appointed by the court
The act of 1889 provides for the ascertainment of damages and the assessment of benefits, by a system in harmony with that in use in cities of the first and second classes. Its provisions, authorizing the filing of a municipal lien for unpaid assessments, and the collection of the amount so secured, by means of a personal action or a writ of scire facias, are not diverse from those in force in other cities, but in harmony with them. They do not change the established modes of procedure in the courts of law, or the rules of evidence. They create no new style of liens, they change no settled rule of property. The court below was, therefore, in error in holding the act to be unconstitutional, and the affidavit of defence to be sufficient.
The judgment of the court, upon the motion for judgment, is therefore reversed and set aside, and it is now ordered that