Fister v. Borough

Citations

• 49 Pa. Super. 483
• 1912 Pa. Super. LEXIS 355

Syllabus

<p>Boroughs — Annexation of land — Action of burgess and council— Equity — Jurisdiction—Act of April 1903, P. L. 21fl.</p> <p>1. The chancery power conferred by a statute upon the courts of common pleas to restrain the commission or continuance of acts contrary to law and prejudicial to the interests of the community, or the rights of individuals, may be invoked to restrain a burgess and council of a borough from irregularly and illegally proceeding under the Act of April 22, 1903, P. L. 247, to annex adjacent territory to the borough; but while a court of equity may enjoin the annexation, if the action of council be contrary to law, it has not power to substitute its own discretion for that of the burgess and council.</p> <p>2. In order to justify a court of equity in virtually reforming an ordinance adopted under the Act of April 22, 1903, P. L. 247, by excluding lands which the ordinance embraced, and then decreeing that the ordinance as thus reformed is valid, it ought to be very clearly shown that the lands excluded by the court were so situated as to make it undeniably and absolutely unlawful for the borough to annex them.</p> <p>' 3. Where at a meeting of freeholders the majority adopt preambles and resolutions favoring the annexation of land to a borough, and these preambles and resolutions are signed by the freeholders, and the meeting also appoints a committee to confer with the borough officials in the matter of the proposed annexation, and this committee subsequently prepares a formal petition as provided by the Act of April 22, 1903, P. L. 247, in which they exclude 200 acres of land included in the resolutions, and this petition although not signed by anyone is annexed to the resolution, a subsequent ordinance based upon the petition is invalid because the petition which the council took as the basis of its action was not the petition which the freeholders had signed, but differed from it both in form and substance.</p> <p>4. On a bill in equity to res