Philadelphia Parkway

Citations

• 250 Pa. 257
• 95 A. 429
• 1915 Pa. LEXIS 935

Syllabus

<p>Municipalities — Eminent domain — Opening streets — Property owners — Assessment of damages — Parkway — Statute of limitations.</p> <p>1. The mere plotting of a street upon a city plan, -without anything more, does not constitute the taking of land in the constitutional sense, so as to give an abutting owner the right to have damages assessed, the marking of a new street upon a city plan being nothing more than an expression of intention to take the'land when the occasion arises for opening the street as a public highway.</p> <p>2. The passage of an ordinance is not the only way by which a projected street may be opened. It may be opened by unequivocal acts evidencing an intention to open, followed by actual work done on the projected street.</p> <p>3. The general rule is that the statute of limitations has no application to a proceeding to assess damages for property taken, injured or destroyed in the exercise of the right of eminent domain, and the exceptions to the rule are based upon facts and circumstances peculiar to the cases in which they arise.</p> <p>4. Upon petition of an owner of property lying within the lines of a proposed parkway in a city, asking for the appointment of viewers to assess its damages, it appeared that the parkway was placed upon the city plan more than twelve years before the presentation of the petition; that it was a general municipal improvement intended for the use and enjoyment of the public; that one of its termini was at the city hall and 'the other in a public park; some properties in the line of the parkway had been taken by condemnation, some had been acquired by purchase, some buildings had been torn down, some work had been done on parts of the parkway, some improvements intended to add beauty had been constructed, and a portion of the parkway was open to public travel. Held, (1) the parkway must be regarded as one entire improvement, to which the city had committed itself as fully as if councils had declared their inten