Jones v. Beale

Citations

• 217 Pa. 182
• 66 A. 254
• 1907 Pa. LEXIS 681

Syllabus

<p>Municipal liens — Tax liens — Service by posting and advertisement— Act of June 10, 1881, P. L. 91.</p> <p>The Act of June 10, 1881, P. L. 91, providing for service by posting and advertisement in proceedings on a municipal claim, applies to proceedings against a registered owner of real estate on' a municipal lien for taxes.</p> <p>The act applies to a registered owner who is dead.</p> <p>Where the record of a scire facias sur municipal lien for taxes shows on its face that the registered owner is dead, an acceptance of service for the registered owner, or for “her estate” is fatally defective. In such a case the fact that the administrator of the registered owner is made a party defendant, and service accepted for him, is immaterial, if the record fails to show any exceptional right of the administrator to represent the real estate.</p> <p>There is no such legal entity as an “estate” and as a designation of a party to be served with a writ it is unknown to the law.</p> <p>In matters depending on statutory authority for their entire validity the statute must be followed strictly.</p> <p>Remedial statutes should be applied so as to make the remedy coextensive with the evil, if it can be done by reasonable construction in furtherance of its object.</p>