Mintz v. Scowden

Citations

• 68 Pa. Super. 228
• 1917 Pa. Super. LEXIS 101

Syllabus

<p>Bounties — Noxious animals — Definition of bounty — Words and :phrases — Statutes—Repeal—Acts of April 10, 1907, P. L. 60, and April 15, 1915, P. L. 186.</p> <p>A bounty has been defined as signifying a sum of money paid, or a premium offered to encourage or promote an object, or procure a particular act or thing to be done. It is not a mere gratuity but has every element of a contract when the services prescribed within the act are performed.</p> <p>Where noxious animals for the killing of which a bounty was offered by the Act of April 10, 1907, P. L. 60, have been actually killed, the bounty has been earned and a contractual right established, which cannot be taken away before the bounty is paid, by the repeal of the Act of Í907, by the Act of April 15, 1915, P. L. 126. Such a contractual right is protected by the constitutional provision forbidding legislation which violates the obligation of contracts.</p> <p>There is nothing in the Act of April 15, 1915, P. L. 126, which substantially reenacted the portions of the earlier act relating to bounties which indicates an intention of the legislature to divest rights which had accrued under the earlier act.</p>