34 Pa. Super. 581 | Pa. | 1907
The legal question upon which the court was asked to give an opinion in this case is thus stated by the appellants’ counsel : “ Where there is separate ownerships of oil and gas in a tract of unseated land, can such mineral right be separately assessed for taxes ?” The question is an important one, but, as we remarked in Duquesne Borough v. Cole, 7 Pa. Superior Ct. 474, were it still more important than it is, the court could not be asked to give an opinion upon it except in a proceeding brought, noj¿ merely to ascertain the law, but to settle a real dispute. “ Courts ought to encourage amicable submissions of real disputes, but people have no right to propound abstract questions to them. For this there is not only the clearest reason, but the highest authority: ” Berks County v. Jones, 21 Pa. 413. Again, in Guardians of the Poor of Pittsburg v. Allegheny, 1 Pittsburg Reports, 97, in an opinion by Chief Justice Black, the Supreme Court said: “When a mere abstract question of law is submitted to the court, the defendant waiving every other point on which he might rest, it is a sign that the purpose is to get the advice of the judges, and this ought not to be given.” And we have held that while mere inartificiality in the drawing of a case stated is not sufficient ground to set it aside, failure to inform the court respecting the form and substance of the .judgment to be entered and to specifically agree that it shall be entered, is fatal: Forney v. Huntingdon County, 6 Pa. Superior Ct. 397 ; Morgan v. Mercer County, 8 Pa. Superior Ct. 96. In the present case it was stipulated that the court should enter judgment for the plaintiffs or the defendants accordingly as it should determine the legal ques
The case stated and all proceedings under it are quashed and set aside.