Philadelphia v. Merz

Citations

• 16 Pa. Super. 332
• 1901 Pa. Super. LEXIS 70

Syllabus

<p>Municipal lien — Registered owner — Service of scire facias.</p> <p>Where there was a registered owner of premises against which a municipal lien had been filed, and on scire facias proceeding on the lien there is no affidavit of record that the registered owner has no known place of residence in the county, or that he cannot be found, the service of a scire facias by posting and advertising and nihil habet as to the registered owner is an insufficient service to support a valid judgment upon the scire facias.</p> <p>Municipal lien — Registered owner — Scire facias — Defective service — Appearance of owner after he has parted with title — Judgment.</p> <p>A defective service of a scire facias sur municipal lien by posting and advertisement and nihil habet as to the registered owner, when the registered owner actually occupied the premises at the time the writ was returned, is not cured by the appearance of the registered owner entered over a year after he had been deprived of title by sheriff’s sale; and if judgment has been entered against him after such appearance, the purchaser of the premises at sheriff’s sale has a standing to have such judgment stricken off. *</p> <p>Where a proceeding is purely in rem and the mandatory provisions of the statutes authorizing it have been ignored, it is not in the power of one who has no interest whatever in the property sought to be charged, and no personal interest whatever to be affected by the judgment asked for, to give jurisdiction to enter judgment by waiving a jurisdictional defect in the proceeding. The fact that such a person at one time had an interest does not make his right to waive the defect any clearer or stronger.</p>