34 Pa. Super. 128 | Pa. | 1907
Opinion by
The city of Scranton, upon the petition of the appellant and others, being a majority in number of owners of abutting property, paved West Lackawanna avenue and assessed the cost of the improvement against abutting property according to the foot-front rule. There is no suggestion of any irregularity in the proceedings under which the improvement was made, nor that the property was not of a character properly assessable according to frontage. The city filed a lien against the property of the defendant and issued a scire facias thereon, to which the defendant demurred, upon the ground that the claim had not been filed within six months from the date of the assessment. The court below overruled the demurrer and the defendant appeals.
When the defendant and other property owners joined in the petition to councils, praying that the street be paved, “ and that the cost of said improvement be assessed against abutting property owners according to the foot-front rule and be made payable in five annual installments,” they elected to have the work done under the provisions of the Act of May 23, 1889, P. L. 277, entitled “An act providing for the incorporation and government of cities of the third class.” This conferred upon the city jurisdiction to make the improvement as prayed for, and to assess the property and collect the* assessments in the manner provided by the statute which the appel
The Act of May 16, 1891, P. L. 69, is a part of a system of general affirmative legislation, relating to municipal improvements, the ascertaiment of the damages resulting therefrom, the assessment of the cost thereof upon property benefited and the manner of collecting such assessments; conferring additional cumulative powers on municipalities of all grades, which was enacted during the legislative session of 1891. Mr. Justice Mitchell in referring to one of the Acts constituting a part of this system, that of May 16, 1891, P. L. 75, thus refers to the history and purpose of the legislation. “ In the task of steering through constitutional restrictions, .... the legislature had found difficulty in constructing statutes conferring powers and inodes of procedure suitable to all the diverse needs, situations and wishes of the multitude of municipal organizations in the state. In the effort some well intended acts had come to naught, and others had been shorn of sections that left inconvenient gaps here and there in the whole system. It was to fill these gaps, to supply the casus omissi, and to supplement powers doubtful or defective, that the act of 1891 was passed. It took away no power from any municipality that existed before, nor interfered with .any mode of its exercise, except as already said, where there is an. irreconcilable repugnancy: ” Hanover Borough’s Appeal, 150 Pa. 202. The Act of May 16, 1891, P. L. 75, conferred upon all municipalities the power to make many public improvements and provided for the assessment of the costs and expenses of such improvements upon property benefited by boards of viewers appointed by the court of common pleas of the county and for the supervision, confirmation or modification of the reports of such boards of viewers, by the court; the confirmation or
The judgment is affirmed and the record remitted with a procedendo.