Aspinwall-Delafield Co. v. Borough of Aspinwall

Citations

• 229 Pa. 1
• 77 A. 1098
• 1910 Pa. LEXIS 542

Syllabus

<p>Municipalities — Boroughs — Annexation — Building lots — Sewers—■ Contracts — Voidable contracts — Ratification.</p> <p>1. A municipal corporation may ratify the unauthorized acts and contracts of its agents or officers, which are within the scope of corporate powers.</p> <p>2. Where as an incident of the annexation oí a tract of building lots, including a private sewerage system, to a borough a written agreement is entered into between the owner of the lots and the borough authorities whereby the sewer is to pass under the control and ownership of the borough subject to the exemption of certain of the lots from any sewerage connecting charge, the borough cannot, after decree of annexation and acceptance of the sewer, refuse to allow the use of the sewer to the exempted lots except on payment of a connecting charge, on the ground that the resolution authorizing the agreement never received the approval of the burgess, and was therefore void, being legislative in character.</p> <p>3. In such a case, the right of the owner to protection against the threatened action of the borough does not depend upon the contract between the plaintiff owner and the borough; but rests upon the fact that the exclusive ownership of the sewer before the annexation was in the plaintiff and that the rights reserved by the grant remained in the plaintiff the same as before the annexation. It is the borough that must assert the contract, not the plaintiff, for independent of the contract the borough has no right in the sewer whatever.</p>