City of Chester v. Larkin

Citations

• 72 Pa. Super. 204
• 1919 Pa. Super. LEXIS 282

Syllabus

<p>Road law — Paving—Original pavement — Municipal action.</p> <p>A first pavement, in a legal sense, which exempts the abutting property owner from liability for any subsequent improvement, may be defined generally, as one that is put down originally or adopted or acquiesced in by the municipal authority, for the purpose and with the intent of changing an ordinary road into a street. If the purpose and intent be wanting, a mere surfacing of the road, however carefully or expensively done, will not be a paving, but if the intent and purpose are present, or may be fairly inferred, then there is a paving whatever the material may be.</p> <p>Where a street in a borough was paved in accordance with a petition signed by the abutting owners, and under the authority conferred in the borough council, and an assessment levied against the abutting properties in proportion to their respective frontage there is sufficient evidence that it was the intention of the municipal authorities to convert the road into a paved, improved borough street, and that such improvement constituted an original paving in the legal sense. Where such borough is afterwards annexed to an adjoining city the city cannot assess the abutting property owners for new paving under the front foot rule.</p>