71 Pa. Super. 85 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1919
Opinion by
The State Highway Department having, under the authority conferred by the Act of May 31,1911, P. L. 468, undertaken the construction, reconstruction and improvement of the State highway designated in the statute as “Route 72. From Pittsburgh to' Butler,” raised the grade of the road in front of the property of the appellees, the latter presented a.petition to the court below praying for the appointment of viewers to ascertain and assess the damages alleged to have resulted from the work. The viewers reported in due form, finding facts and conclusions of law, including a finding that the State Highway Department had in reconstructing the road “elevated the grade thereof without changing the horizontal position of the center or side lines, so that the surface of the road as reconstructed is from three and a half feet to about five and a half feet higher than before said reconstruction.” The report also found that the property of the petitioners had been damaged by the elevation of the grade of the road. The conclusions of law contained
This statute introduced a new policy of the State with regard to many of its public highways, which are taken over by the State and are to be reconstructed and maintained by it without the intervention or assistance of the counties or townships. Among the roads so taken over was “Route 72. From Pittsburgh to Butler......Commencing at a point on the boundary line of the City of Pittsburgh, and running over Route 70 to Etna; thence
It is to be observed that the legislature certainly did not intend to give the right to compensation for any and every injury that might result to property from the reconstruction of the State highways, if this had been their intention they certainly would not have introduced into this section the limitation of the right to those cases “wherein a change of existing lines and location is necessary.” If these words had been left out, it might with some show of reason, have been then argued that it was the legislative intention that all damages, however remote, should be paid by the State. This statute is part of a general system of which the Act of 1836 is the foundation. The general system of legislation upon the subject-matter may be taken into view, to aid the construction of this statute: Neeld’s Road, 1 Pa. 353; Sharett’s Road, 8 Pa. 92; Howell v. Morrisville Boro., 212 Pa. 349. The argument on behalf of the appellees is to the effect that “a change of existing lines and lo
There is probably no change of an existing highway or of any other established order of things that does not to some extent cause practical inconvenience, and in that sense injury, to those who have adapted themselves to the previous conditions. If the construction given by the court below to the sixteenth section of the statute is to be sustained then any damage likely to result to abutting property from the reconstruction of a State highway would entitle a property owner to recover. That this broad interpretation of the statute cannot be sustained must be accepted as settled by the decision of the Supreme Court in Saeger v. Commonwealth, 258 Pa. 239. In that case the highway commissioner had changed the location of a road, under the authority conferred by the Act of May 31, 1911, and Saeger, who owned property upon the old road, sought to recover damages, but it was held that even if the portion of the road upon which his farm abutted was vacated the statute did not warrant a recovery of damages for injuries to the property. There having been, in this case, no change of the existing lines and location of the road, the statute did not give a remedy for any injury which the appellees may have suffered. The learned judge of the court below fell into error in sustaining the exceptions to the conclusions of law in the first report of the viewers, and in overruling the exceptions of the Commonwealth and finally confirming the second report of viewers.
The order and judgment of the court below is reversed and the petition for the appointment of viewers is dismissed at the costs of the appellees.