Philadelphia v. Cooper

Citations

• 212 Pa. 306
• 61 A. 926
• 1905 Pa. LEXIS 606

Syllabus

<p>Municipal claims—Continuance of lien—Alias writ of scire facias—Service—Registered owner—City of Philadelphia—Acts of March 29, 1867, P. L. 600, June 10, 1881, P. L. 91, May 16, 1891, P. L. 69, and July 26, 1897, P. L. 420.</p> <p>A scire facias sur municipal lien fatally defective in its service and a nullity for the purpose of obtaining judgment thereon has not sufficient potentiality to continue the lien beyond the time of its expiration so as to give validity to a judgment attempted to be secured on an alias scire facias sued out after the lien of the original claim had expired by efflux of time.</p> <p>Where a scire facias sur municipal lien is issued in Philadelphia within five years from the time when the claim was filed, and is returned nihil habet without the filing of an affidavit averring that the registered owner is a nonresident or cannot be found, and an alias scire facias is issued more than five years after the claim was filed but within five years from the exit of the first writ, the alias writ is invalid and should be stricken from the record.</p> <p>Fell and Potter, JJ. dissent.</p>