112 Pa. 66 | Pa. | 1886
delivered the opinion of the court, March 1st, 1886.
This certiorari brings before the court the record of the Quarter Sessions of Delaware county containing the proceedings in the incorporation of the Borough of Sharon Hill.
On the same day upon which the petitions were filed they were “ approved ” by the grand jury. Subsequently the burgess and town council of the Borough of Darby presented their petition, praying the court to exclude from the boundaries of the proposed new Borough of Sharon Hill such portion of the territory as was embraced within the corporate limits of the Borough of Darby; which petition, after argument, was dismissed, and on the 24th of December, 1885, the formal final decree was entered, incorporating the Borough of Sharon Hill, and embracing in it a part of the territory of the Borough of Darby.
Laying aside all technical objections to this record, the main question raised is whether or not, in the incorporation of a borough by the courts of Quarter Sessions, it is competent to embrace: within the bounds territory covered by the charter of a borough already incorporated.
The Legislature, by authority of which all municipal corporations exist, without doubt, has full power in the premises, by the enactment of general laws to that end, and in these provisions may exercise the power mediately or immediately. A municipal corporation, as was said in Philadelphia v. Fox, 14 P. F. S., 169, “ is merely an agency instituted by the sovereign for the purpose of carrying out in detail the objects of government — essentially a revocable agency — having no vested right to any of its powers or franchises, the charter or act of erection being in no sense a contract with the state — and therefore fully subject to the control of the Legislature, who may enlarge or diminish its territorial extent or its functions, may change or modify its internal arrangement, or destroy its very existence, with the mere breath of arbitrary discretion. Sic volo, sic jubeo, that is all the sovereign authority need say. This, much is undeniable, and has not been denied.”
The incorporation of Sharon Hill, according to the limits designated, it must be admitted, necessarily involves an alteration or change in the limits of the Borough of Darby, and that change is not an enlargement, but a contraction of its lines.
The only provision which has been brought to our notice relating to a change of the limits of a borough, is the third section of the Act of April 1st, 1884, and this requires that the same proceedings shall be had as are required to be taken in the original incorporation. If it be objected that this section relates only to boroughs, incorporated under that act, we may answer, first, that if this section does not apply, we-find no other that does apply; and second, the record does not show how, or when, the Borough of Darby was incorporated. The opinion of the court, and the depositions, are no part of the record and to the record, on the hearing of a certiorari, we are strictly confined.
If then the same proceedings must be had in the change of the limits of a borough as are required in an original incorporation, it follows that an application, must be made for the purpose, signed by a majority of the freeholders residing within the limits of the borough; that due notice shall be given as directed by law; that it shall be approved by the grand jury and confirmed by the court. It is not pretended that 'any of these steps have been taken.
Wliat the statute requires shall be done in an orderly,
The decree of the Court of Quarter Sessions is therefore reversed, and the proceedings are set aside.