Carrick v. Canevin

Citations

• 55 Pa. Super. 233
• 1913 Pa. Super. LEXIS 349

Syllabus

<p>Municipal claims — Exemption of burial place — Notice to owner— Property of Roman Catholic Church.</p> <p>1. A rule for judgment for want of a sufficient affidavit of defense in a scire facias sur municipal claim for grading and paving a street abutting on a burial place owned by a Roman Catholic congregation, is properly discharged where an affidavit of defense avers that no notice of the proceedings before the viewers had been given to the congregation, its members or officers, and there is nothing in the record of the proceedings to show notice to anyone, except what might be inferred from a statement in the published report of viewers that the bishop of the diocese as trustee had been assessed an amount stated.</p> <p>2. A Roman Catholic bishop is a mere dry trustee of the property owned by the various congregations in his diocese, and-as such he has neither interest in the estate nor power to control it or direct its management in any way. He is simply the passive, silent depository of the legal title and nothing more.</p>