McAndrew v. Dunmore Borough

Citations

• 245 Pa. 101
• 91 A. 237
• 1914 Pa. LEXIS 839

Syllabus

<p>Municipalities — Boroughs — Improvements — Streets — Act of June 16, 1911, P. L. 971 — Ordinances—Ordinance void ‘in part— Construction— Constitutional law — Taxpayers—Equity—Injunction.</p> <p>1. It is a constitutional requisite that an ordinance authorizing the improvement of streets in a municipality shall provide lawful means of payment for the improvement, and where the provisions of such an ordinance for payment are unlawful the whole ordinance is void.</p> <p>2. A taxpayer sustains his right to maintain a bill in equity to restrain the enforcement of an ordinance which compels him to pay for the paving and grading of a street when he shows that the improvement is not made in pursuance of an ordinance passed in conformity with the statute authorizing it, and the fact that the provision of the ordinance which makes it invalid is not prejudicial to plaintiff’s interest is immaterial.</p> <p>3. An ordinance, like a legislative statute may be good in part and upheld, while another part may be illegal and void, and a section or part of an ordinance or statute may be so disconnected in purpose and effect that its illegality will not necessarily avoid the ordinance or legislative act in toto. This principle, however, cannot be invoked to sustain any part of an ordinance for grading and paving streets which does not provide at the same time the constitutional requisite of the lawful means of payment for the improvement.</p> <p>4. A borough ordinance authorizing a municipal improvement and providing that two-thirds of the cost of such improvement be paid by assessments against the abutting property, payable in seven annual installments, the first assessment to be made thirty days after the commencement of the work, and that bonds be issued, payable “at any time within six years from their respective dates” and exclusively out of the proceeds of such assessments, is invalid as failing to comply with the Act of June 15,1911, P. L. 971, providing for the payment of the