Park Avenue Sewers

Citations

• 169 Pa. 433
• 32 A. 574
• 1895 Pa. LEXIS 1110

Syllabus

<p>Sewers — Assessments—Municipalities—Act of May 16, 1891. The cost of constructing a sewer can be assessed only upon the property abutting upon the line of the improvement.</p> <p>A property owner cannot be assessed with the cost of a fifteen inch main sewer, where it appears that a ten inch local sewer would have been sufficient to give the property all the benefit it derives from the main sewer.</p> <p>Such an assessment is contrary to the express terms of said act by which the costs and expenses are to be assessed according to benefits, if sufficient property benefited can be found, and if not, then the deficiency is to be paid by the municipal corporation. It also violates the general rule that the limit of special benefit is the limit of the liability to special assessment : Oil City v. Oil City Boiler Works, 152 Pa. 348, distinguished.</p> <p>Not decided whether the provisions of the act of May 23, 1889, P. L. 312, relating to assessments on all property in a sewer district for the excess of the cost of main over local or branch sewers, are repealed by the act of May 16, 1891.</p>