8 Pa. Super. 313 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1898
Opinion by
County commissioners may require as a condition of their consent to the use of a county bridge by a street railway, that the railway company shall bear the expense of strengthening the bridge, assume the cost of repairs and alterations that may be necessary in order to support safely the street railway and its traffic in addition to the ordinary public travel, and pay a reasonable rental. But when the proper local. and .municipal authorities have given their consent to the use by a street railway company of a highway of which a county bridge forms a part, the county commissioners cannot arbitrarily refuse the use of the bridge to the company. If they refuse their consent, and the bridge be of sufficient capacity to accommodate the general public travel and also the tracks and cars of the railway, the court, after ascertaining what will be necessary to strengthen the bridge for street railway traffic, may permit the company to enter upon the bridge and strengthen it, and when this has been done to the satisfaction of the court the company may be permitted to use the bridge for the purposes of its business upon giving security that the company will faithfully observe and abide by the terms and conditions relating to the manner of the use of the bridge, the repairs thereof, and the payment of the rent, which may have been or may thereafter be agreed upon by the parties, or, in the absence of an agreement may be determined upon by the court. These rules for the guidance of the court in such cases were laid down in the language, substantially, in which we have stated them in Berks
Nor did the qualification that the work should be done under the supervision of the county commissioners cure the error. What work was referred to ? What supervision were they to have except, possibly, to see that the work was well done ? What authority had they under the decree to determine what was necessary to be done ? If they and the defendants could not agree upon that point who was to decide ? These questions sufficiently indicate the objections to the decree. It is vague and indefinite and not in accordance with the practice laid down in the case above cited. We think therefore that so far as it granted permission to go on with the work the decree should be reversed and the case allowed to stand as if the interlocutory injunction had been refused, simply. The court will then be at liberty on final hearing to make such decree concerning all the disputed matters as the proofs may warrant. In short, if the determination of the terms and conditions upon which the defendants were to use the bridge for the purposes of their business was to be postponed until final hearing, so ought the granting of express permission to have been postponed.
That part of the decree which grants permission to the defendants to proceed with the work complained of in the bill is reversed at the costs of the appellees, and the record is remitted with a procedendo.