Monaca Borough v. Monaca Street Railway Co.

Citations

• 247 Pa. 242
• 93 A. 344
• 1915 Pa. LEXIS 815

Syllabus

<p>Street railways — Municipalities—Construction of line — Extension — Branch line — Contracts—Nonperformance—Legal obstacles —Penal bonds.</p> <p>1. It is only where a party by his contract creates a duty or charge upon himself, that he is bound to make it good notwithstanding prevented by inevitable necessity from performing. In all such cases he is held to the performance of his contract because he might have originally provided against it. When it is the law that creates the duty or charge, and the party is unable to perform it without fault on his part, the law excuses. The law never exacts performance of a contract whose performance would involve violation of law.</p> <p>2. A street railway company is not liable on a bond conditioned for the completion of its road on certain streets of a'municipality before a certain date, although practically no work has been done by the time specified, where it appears that other municipalities through which the company was chartered to construct its road have not consented thereto, and that consequently the company could not lawfully build its road.</p> <p>3. In such case, it is not material that such other municipalities are on a portion of the line authorized by an extension to the charter, and not by the original charter, where no work was done under the original charter until after the extension was authorized. Such extension is not a branch line, but a prolongation of the original line.</p>