14 Pa. Super. 1 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1900
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting:
That no assessment can be made, nor lien filed, by a municipal
The learned judge of the court below, while of opinion that the weight of judicial and text book authority outside of Pennsylvania was adverse to the contention of the appellee, felt constrained, by certain Pennsylvania authorities, to cut down this assessment and charge the defendant upon a basis which is not authorized by either of the acts of assembly under which there was any authority to make an assessment, the judgment entered being upon the basis of the supposed cost of the work done in the street immediately in front of this particular lot. The conclusion at which the learned court below arrived is not, in my opinion, sustained by the cases relied upon. The case of McGonigle v. The City of Allegheny, 44 Pa. 118, which is thought to sustain the position of the appellee, must be considered in the light of the case stated, upon which the court passed. The street in question there was one which from end to end was upon one side bounded by the east common, and on the west side by private property. The title to the common was in the city, subject to the right of common in the owners of in-lots. The improvement was made under an act which authorized the
The principle of taxation upon which assessments upon property abutting upon a public improvement are sustained is, that such properties have from the improvement received a benefit which is peculiar to them, as distinguished from the benefits
The property of the appellee fronted upon this improvement. It is conceded in the case stated that it was subject to assessment for the improvement. The only question involved is the amount which, under the law, he ought to contribute. The pavement was petitioned for, ordained by the city, contracted for and the work done under the provisions of the act of May 23, 1889. The city clearly had jurisdiction to enact the ordinance, contract for the improvement and make the assessment. The work is admitted to have been done in accordance with the contract and specifications. In accordance with the provisions of the 31st section 'of the Act of May 23,1889, P. L. 277, 327, councils authorized the city engineer to make the assessments. The foot-front rule may not be the best which could have been devised for making assessments for street improvements of this character, but it was the only one that this city engineer had jurisdiction to apply; he was bound by the terms of the act
Lead Opinion
Opinion by
The learned judge of the court below has written an exhaustive and able opinion. After a review of the cases in states other than Pennsylvania, he reaches this conclusion: “ Upon the strength of these authorities as well as upon principle, we should have no hesitation in holding that the method of making a local assessment, which they advocate, is, at least as a general rule the true one, and that is, that the improvement is to be treated as a whole, the whole cost of it being distributed among the properties abutting thereon, according to benefits, which, if estimated by the foot-front rule, are to be measured not by the extent or cost of the improvement in front of each property, but by the proportion which the lineal frontage of each bears to the whole frontage of the improvement.” He then proceeds to an examination of the decided cases in Pennsylvania and concludes that they in a measure sanction the converse doctrine, and that the peculiar conditions attending the work to be done in the case of a particular property assessed on the foot-front rule, may be regarded in fixing the amount of the assessment as to that property.
We have considered the cases cited by the court and by counsel, including the elaborate opinion in the case of the City of Shreveport v. Prescott, 46 L. R. A. 193, with the note appended thereto. Some of the cases cited by the learned judge of the court below may be susceptible of a construction different from that put upon them by him, but having regard to the trend of the Pennsylvania decisions, we affirm the judgment upon the opinion of the court below and upon the facts of the case now before us.
Judgment affirmed.