Carpenter v. Lancaster City

Citations

• 67 Pa. Super. 22
• 1917 Pa. Super. LEXIS 332

Syllabus

<p>Road law — Damages—Opening street — Damages for construction of sewer — Municipalities—Constitutional law.</p> <p>Where a city files a petition for the appointment of viewers to assess damages for the taking of private property for a street, and while such petition is pending files a second petition for the appointment of viewers to assess damages incident to the construction of a sewer in the same street, and proceedings on the first petition result in a judgment for the property owner which is paid, and proceedings on the second petition result in a judgment against the property owner, which is affirmed on appeal, the property owner cannot thereafter maintain an. action of trespass against the city for damages claimed to have accrued between the date of the entry upon the land to construct the sewer, arid the date of the payment of the damages resulting from the opening of the street.</p> <p>In such a- case the construction of the sewer imposed no new servitude on the land already appropriated for the street. The fact that the damages were not actually paid at the time of the appropriation is immaterial, inasmuch as the taxing power of the city furnished to the landowner the security contemplated by the constitutional requirement that no entry shall be made until the damages are paid or secured.</p>