City of Philadelphia ex rel. McCann v. Philadelphia & Reading Railroad

Citations

• 177 Pa. 292
• 35 A. 610
• 1896 Pa. LEXIS 979

Syllabus

<p>Railroads — Municipal lien — Municipal improvements — Sewers—Act of April 21, 1858.</p> <p>Under the act oí April 21, 1858, P. L. 885, which provides that: “ The offices, depots, car-houses and other real property of railroad corporations situated in said city of Philadelphia, the superstructure of the road and water stations only excepted, are and hereafter shall be subject to taxation by ordinances for city purposes,” it is held (1) that by the word “ superstructure ” is meant the roadbed with whatever had been constructed upon it; (2) that the words “subject to taxation by ordinances for city purposes,” means not only taxation for ordinary revenue, but also assessments for municipal improvements.</p> <p>A municipal claim for a sewer was filed against land owned by a railroad company in Philadelphia, extending for fifteen hundred feet along a street, and running back from the street for a considerable distance to the Delaware river. The land was covered throughout with a great number of diverging railroad tracks, and was used as a terminus for exporting coal and iron ore. The railroad company was authorized to appropriate for roadbed a strip of land sixty-six feet wide, and it could also appropriate land for sidings and turn-outs for the speedy and safe passage of its cars. The main line of the railroad extended through the land against which the lien was filed. Held, (1) that a lien would lie against the land for a sewer; (2) that the fact that the court could not say how much of the land was roadbed would not prevent the entry of judgment on the lien, as a sale of the land would pass to the purchaser nothing the lien did not bind. '</p> <p>Railroads — Transfer of franchise.</p> <p>The franchises and corporate rights of a railroad company and the means vested in it which are necessary to the existence and maintenance of the object for which it was created are incapable of being granted away, and transferred by any act of the company itself, or by any adverse p