City of Bradford v. Fox

Citations

• 171 Pa. 343
• 33 A. 85
• 1895 Pa. LEXIS 1312

Syllabus

<p>Municipalities—Ordinances—•Cities of the third class—Act of May 23, 1889, P. L. 288—Estoppel.</p> <p>The act oí May 23, 1889, art. V. seo. 10, P. L. 288, providing that in cities of third class councils shall not order any street to be paved at the cost of abutting owners “unless the ordinance for such improvement shall have been passed by a vote of two thirds of all the members of each branch of councils,” is not merely directory, but is a limitation upon the power of councils; and the city cannot recover from an abutting owner on a municipal lien for cost of paving if the ordinance authorizing the improvement was not passed by a two thirds vote.</p> <p>An abutting owner is not estopped from objecting to the invalidity of the ordinance by the fact that he appeared before councils while an ordinance was pending providing for a particular kind of paving, and requested a different kind of paving, which kind was subsequently adopted by the ordinance passed without the statutory vote.</p>