Kraus v. Philadelphia

Citations

• 265 Pa. 425
• 109 A. 226
• 1919 Pa. LEXIS 570

Syllabus

<p>Municipalities — Municipal indebtedness — Philadelphia—Statutes —Repeal—Certificate of official.</p> <p>1. The legislature may at any time modify or abolish the powers vested by it in the municipalities of the State.</p> <p>2. Unfinished proceedings of a municipality ordinarily fall with the repeal of the laws under which they were begun.</p> <p>3. But if the repealing act also substantially reenacts the repealed laws, pending proceedings may he continued, subject to such modifications as the new act provides.</p> <p>4. Where the legislature declares that it shall be unlawful thereafter for a municipality to do a given thing, it cannot thereafter he done, no matter how far the proceedings leading up thereto had advanced when the act went into effect.</p> <p>5. Where the certificate of an official is made a condition precedent to the validity of a future act of the municipality, that act cannot thereafter he legally performed, though the prior proceedings, to which the certificate relates had theretofore been legally done.</p> <p>6. In that event, however, the municipality may, by pupplementary ordinances, reenact the prior proceedings upon the giving of the proper certificate.</p> <p>Constitutional law — Municipal debt — Delegation of power — Local and special laws — Obligation of contract — Act of June 25,1919.</p> <p>7. Section 8 of Article XVII of the Act of June 25, 1919, is not unconstitutional as a local or special law, nor as violating the obligation of contracts, nor as an unlawful delegation of power, nor as a violation of the amendment to article IX, section 9, relating to incurring indebtedness by the City of Philadelphia.</p>