Opening of Ruan Street

Citations

• 132 Pa. 257
• 19 A. 219
• 1890 Pa. LEXIS 805

Syllabus

<p>1. The only ground upon which the classification of cities for purposes of legislation, made by the act of May 28, 1874, P. L. 280, is or can be sustained, is the evident necessity for the possession by some cities of. corporate powers unsuited for others, the great differences in their population rendering necessary corresponding differences in the number, character, powers and duties of the municipal officers.</p> <p>2. That classification does not authorize legislation for a class of cities upon subjects not relating to municipal affairs: a law which will not bear the test that it must apply to all members of the class to which it relates, and be directed to the existence and regulation of municipal powers, is a local law, and as such it is invalid, if it be upon one of t,ho subjects as to which local and special legislation is forbidden by the constitution.</p> <p>3. The third and subsequent sections of the act of May 6, 1887, P. L. 87, which provide a peculiar code of procedure in road cases for cities of the first class, unlike that in use in the rest of the state, as they do not relate to the exercise of any corporate powers by such cities, or to any matters of municipal government, but are a regulation of the practice and procedure in the common law courts, are in violation of § 7, Art. III., of the constitution.</p> <p>4. The constitution having made no provision for classifying litigation with reference to the location or value of the property involved, the fact that real estate is more valuable in the city than in the country, does not justify such legislation, in the face of the constitutional inhibition of local or special laws regulating the practice of courts, or authorizing the opening, etc., of highways, streets or alleys.</p> <p>5. Nor is the constitutionality of such a law a legislative question: the legislature must exercise its power within the lines laid down by the constitution ; and, while what it shall do within those lines is a question