Marcoz v. Wilmerding Borough

Citations

• 37 Pa. Super. 185
• 1908 Pa. Super. LEXIS 261

Syllabus

<p>Road law — Change of grade — Petition of property owner — Damages— Act of May 16,1891, P. L. 75.</p> <p>A borough has the power to ordain the grading of a street without a petition having been presented by a majority of the owners of abutting property praying for the making of the improvement; and this power has not been taken away by the Act of May 16, 1891, P. L. 75, or by any later legislation, such as the Act of May 22, 1895, P. L. 106, relating to the -opening, widening, straightening or extending of streets, or the Act of May 19, 1897, P. L. 79, relating to the imposition of assessments upon abutting property according to the “foot-front rule.”</p> <p>Borough authorities alone have the lawful authority to change the grade of streets, and a lawful contract between a borough and a street railway company which necessarily results in a change of grade of a highway, must be construed as an ordinance of the borough providing for such change, and the change itself is a municipal improvement, rendering the borough liable in damages for injuries to abutting property resulting therefrom.</p> <p>Where a borough grants to a street railway company the right to use a street on condition that it shall grade and pave a portion of the street, the fact that the borough subsequently grades and paves those portions of the street outside of that part which the railway company graded and paved, does not relieve the borough from liability for injuries to property resulting from the change of grade made by the railway company; and damages for such injuries may be assessed under the Act of May 16, 1891, P. L. 75, without a preceding petition by property owners.</p>