This is a petition to strike off a municipal lien filed by the Borough of Blakely on March 13, 1926, no. 493 of 1926, against certain lands in the third ward of the Borough of Blakely, being described as lot no. 2 in block 3 on the assessment map for sections 4, 5, and 6 of the Blakely Borough Sanitary System.
The owner of the land was designated as P. Kondrac-ski. It appears from the admitted facts before the court that on August 3, 1925, P. Kondracski conveyed this property to one Thomas Teter et ux., and that on October 14, 1933, Thomas Teter et ux. conveyed the same property to one Frank Agostini et ux., and further that on January 25, 1935, Agostini et ux. conveyed the property to the petitioner, Sylvester Longo.
The chronological history of the municipal lien in question shows that a sci. fa. sur municipal lien was
It is the opinion of the court that, until the passage of the amending Act of May 28, 1937, P. L. 1001, referred to above, a suggestion of nonpayment and averment of default to continue the lien entered on a municipal improvement, where no judgment had been entered following the issuance of the sci. fa., was ineffective. Therefore, the suggestion of nonpayment and averment of default filed on December 31, 1935, in the
The Acts of April 29, 1941, P. L. 29, and July 28, 1941, P. L. 542, directly apply to the situation presented in the case at bar. These acts provide for the reinstatement of a lien lost by a borough on municipal claims. This legislation provides that, where a lien is lost on a municipal claim by the failure to enter judgment within five years of the issuance of the sci. fa., the borough may within six months after the passage of the act issue its praecipe for an alias writ of sci. fa. and proceed to judgment in the manner provided by law. This is exactly our case. The act provides that the lien of any such claim shall not reattach against real estate if it has been transferred to any purchaser during the time that the lien was lost and also that said lien shall not affect the priority of other liens against the property involved. In the present case the property has not'been transferred and the borough issued an alias sci. fa. within the prescribed time.
That the legislature had the power to pass such enabling acts has been sustained by our appellate courts. See Cresson Borough v. Seeds, 286 Pa. 288, and Borough of Huntingdon v. Dorris, 78 Pa. Superior Ct. 469. In the latter case the court said (p. 474) :
“That the legislature has the power to pass such an enactment is definitely settled. It does not relate to penal subjects, nor is it in violation of a contract nor expressly forbidden by the Constitution of this State or the United States. The charge is in the nature of a tax. The improvement of the property is assumed and the*325 equitable right to contribution from the property survives although by reason of some mistake in the proceedings the remedy for its collection is lost. The legislature may provide a new remedy and in so doing there is no deprivation of a constitutional right. It is but the exercise of the taxing power . . .”
Now, therefore, March 13, 1942, the rule heretofore granted to show cause why the lien in the above-entitled ease should not be stricken from the record and the alias sci. fa. dismissed is discharged.
