Beaver Township School District v. Burdick

Citations

• 51 Pa. Super. 496
• 1912 Pa. Super. LEXIS 249

Syllabus

<p>School law — Abandonment of school — Insufficiency of scholars — Lease of lot to school district — Act of April 11, 1862, P. L. 471 — Ejectment— Nonuser.</p> <p>1. Where an owner of a farm leases to a school district a small lot out of his land “ for school purposes so long as it shall be used for school purposes” for the consideration of $5.00, after which the lease by its terms was to be null and void, a grantee of the owner may, thirty-seven years thereafter, successfully defend an action of ejectment brought by the school district to recover possession of the lot, where it appears that the lot has been used for school purposes for twenty-nine years when the schoolhouse erected thereon ceased to be used on- account “ of insufficient number of scholars; ” and that eight years thereafter the owner and his family had moved into it after his dwelling house had been burned.</p> <p>2. In such a case it is immaterial that certain of the school appliances were not removed at the time the schoolhouse ceased to be used for school purposes; or that at intervals of four years and seven years after the building had ceased to be used for school purposes resolutions had been passed by the directors to repair it without any action on such resolutions; or that the building had been abandoned for school purposes without the formalities provided by sec. 4 of the Act of April 11, 1862, P. L. 471.</p> <p>3. The broad statement, that a conveyance of land to trustees for a charitable use is not liable to be defeated by nonuser, is to be taken with a qualification depending upon the nature of the conveyance, its limitation of the estate or interest conveyed, and its limitation of the use intended to be protected by it.</p>