168 Pa. 628 | Pa. | 1895
Opinion by
The parties who complain of the exclusion of territory the inclusion of which constituted their most material objection in the court below to the incorporation of the proposed borough cannot be justly accused of an undue regard for consistency in their efforts to defeat it. There is nothing in the record which shows that they were residents of the borough as incorporated, or that any resident of it excepts to the decree of.incorporation. If therefore they have any standing to contest the decree we may fairly infer that it is as residents or taxpayers of the township affected by it. But as the township was not prejudiced by a modification of boundaries which saved to it a tract of valuable land they ought to base their attack on the decree on other grounds if any appear in the record to warrant it. We are not prepared to say that parties who opposed the inclusion of the land can object to the exclusion of it on the ground that a formal request to exclude it was not made by the owners of it. An owner who requested that his land be excluded from the proposed borough would not be allowed to attack the decree of incorporation on the ground that his request was complied with, and if in lieu of a formal request he filed a specific objection to the inclusion of it he ought not to complain that his objection was removed by the decree.
Speaking for myself, only, the authority given to the court by the act of April 1, 1863, to exclude farm land, carries with it the power to make such modification of the boundaries of the proposed borough as the exclusion of the land renders necessary for the protection of all interests concerned, and there was no misuse of this power in the case at bar.
More than four months after the grand jury reported in favor
Decree affirmed.