Olyphant Sewage-Drainage Co. v. Olyphant Borough

Citations

• 211 Pa. 526
• 61 A. 72
• 1905 Pa. LEXIS 492

Syllabus

<p>Sewers—Boroughs—Sewer company—Permissive right—Contract—Act of May 16,1891, P. L. 75.</p> <p>A mere permission, by a borough, to a sewer company, organized under the Act of June 10, 1893, P. L. 435, to construct a system of sewers under the borough streets, does not give to the sewer company the exclusive right to use the streets for such purposes; but the borough may thereafter install a sewer system of its own, using some or all of the same streets without any liability to the sewer company for indirect or consequential damages for the reduction of the earning power of the company’s system.</p> <p>The provisions of the Act of May 16, 1891, P. L. 75, relating to sewers, which requires the viewers “to determine the damages for property taken, injured or destroyed,” means the actual and physical appropriation of or injury to the property of persons injured, and does not cover indirect or consequential damages to the business of a sewer company with which the municipality had no contract.</p> <p>The Act of April 3, 1851, P. L. 320, confers no power upon boroughs to provide a sewage system by contract. In this particular the rights of a borough as to a sewage system and a water supply are essentially different.</p>