Bell v. Pittsburgh Steel Co.

Citations

• 243 Pa. 83
• 89 A. 813
• 1914 Pa. LEXIS 579

Syllabus

<p>Municipalities — Boroughs—Streets and alleys — Plan of lots— Adoption of streets — Vacation—Obstruction—Lot owners — Equity —Injunction—Rehearing.</p> <p>1. A sale of lots by a private owner, according to a plan which shows them to be on a street, implies a grant or covenant to the purchasers that the street designated on the plan shall remain open for the use of the lot owners, and operates as a dedication of the street to public use. The rights of the lot owners in such a case are founded in the contract of the parties, and do not depend upon the acts of municipal authorities.</p> <p>2. Where a copy of such a plan of lots showing the streets and alleys in the proceedings for the incorporation of a borough is recorded, together with the decree, this is notice of the intention of the borough to take over the streets and alleys shown by the plan as its system of public highways.</p> <p>3. When a borough has made all the streets and alleys shown upon such a plan public highways, such an action is an appropriation by the borough of the rights of the owner of the land covered by the plan of lots to the land contained within the said streets and alleys for public purposes, and thereafter all such streets and alleys are streets and alleys of the borough and subject to municipal control.</p> <p>4. One who purchases a lot shown upon such a plan after the streets and alleys located thereon have been acquired by a municipality, is not in the position of one purchasing a lot from a private owner according to a plan showing streets and alleys laid out by such owner, not accepted or adopted as public highways by municipal authority, but takes the lot with notice that the streets and alleys .are controlled and maintained by borough authorities as public highways, subject to the right of vacation thereof.</p> <p>5. A borough was first laid out as an industrial town by a private land company in 1898. At that time a plan of lots, showing streets and alleys, was duly recorded by t