Opinion by
Edgewood Building Co., Inc. (Edgewood), has appealed from an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County granting Hatfield Township’s motion to strike Edgewood’s preliminary objections to a Declaration of Taking and denying the prayer of Edgewood’s petition for leave to file its preliminary objections nunc pro tunc. The court struck Edge-wood’s preliminary objections because they were filed more than thirty days after service of the Notice of the filing of the Declaration and denied Edgewood’s application to file preliminary objections nunc pro tunc for their failure to give sufficient reason why Edgewood should have that relief.
The subjects of the Township’s Declaration of Taking were a number of small lots in an old land sub
Edgewood says that the court below should not have struck its preliminary objections because the certified mail by which service of the Notice of condemnation was made was sent without restrictive notation, by which it seems to mean without requiring the postal authorities to deliver the item only to some individual Edgewood officer, agent or employee. Edge-wood relies in this regard on Pa. R.C.P. No. 2180, providing that service on corporations and similar entities in actions covered by the Rules of Civil Procedure shall be made on officers, persons in charge of an office or persons authorized to accept service. The argument is wholly without merit. Section 405 of the Eminent Domain Code (Code), Act of June 22, 1964, Special Sess., P.L. 84, 26 P.S. §1-405, provides:
(b) The notice shall be served within or without the Commonwealth by any competent adult, in the same manner as a complaint or writ of summons in assumpsit, or by certified or registered mail, to the last known address of the condemnee____(Emphasis added.)
Edgewood has a heavy burden in undertaking to show that the court below abused its discretion in denying the prayer of the petition to file preliminary objections nunc pro tunc. Section 406 of the Code, 26 P.S. §1-406, provides pertinently:
(a) Within thirty days after being served with notice of condemnation the condemnee may file preliminary objections to the declaration of taking. The court upon cause shown may extend the time for filing preliminary objections. ... (Emphasis added.)
We had the same issue before us in Smith v. Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, 25 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 56, 358 A.2d 734 (1976). We held there that where the condemnee provided no excuse for the late filing of preliminary objections and the condemnor
Order affirmed.
Order
And Now, this 29th day of May, 1979, the order of the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County, entered on October 14, 1977, granting Hatfield Township’s motion to strike the preliminary objections of Edgewood Building Co., Inc. to the Declaration of Taking and denying the prayer of Edgewood’s petition for leave to file preliminary objections nunc pro tunc, is hereby affirmed.
