Lewis v. Borough of Homestead

Citations

• 194 Pa. 199
• 45 A. 123
• 1899 Pa. LEXIS 759

Syllabus

<p>Hoad law — Ghange of grade — Boroughs—Ordinance.</p> <p>Borough authorities alone have power to change the grades of streets and alleys, and an ordinance authorizing a raising of the tracks of a railroad company, which necessarily involves changes in grades of streets, must be construed as an ordinance of a borough providing for changes in the grades of its highways crossed by the railroad.</p> <p>An ordinance providing for the change of grade of a railroad covers a street whose grade must necessarily be changed by the change of grade of the railroad, although the street is not specifically named in the ordinance.</p> <p>Where a change of grade of a borough street is made under the Act of May 21, 1878, P. L. 129, a person whose property is injured by the change of grade is entitled to damages, although no change of grade was made immediately in front of his property.</p> <p>A borough cannot complain that an appeal from a report of viewers changing the grade of a street was tried as if it were an action of trespass for the recovery of damages, where the record shows that the trial judge fully and carefully cautioned the jury against considering any damages except those caused by the change of grade.</p>