Philadelphia v. Ridge Ave. Ry. Co.

Citations

• 142 Pa. 484
• 21 A. 982
• 1891 Pa. LEXIS 765

Syllabus

<p>[To be reported.]</p> <p>1. While it is not required by the constitution that the title of an act of assembly shall be a complete index to its provisions, all the cases agree that the subject of the proposed legislation must be so expressed in the title as to give notice of its purpose to the members of the legislature and to others specially interested.</p> <p>2. But, when an act is declared to be a supplement to a former act, if the subject of the original act is sufficiently expressed in its own title, and the provisions of the supplement are germane to that subject, the subject of the supplement is sufficiently covered by a title containing a specific reference to the original by its title, with the date of its approval.</p> <p>8. Although the cases at the outset were a little loose in construing the constitutional amendment of 1864, yet if the distinction between the title of an original act and that of a supplement be kept in view, they have established a reasonably consistent rule, which may now be recognized as the settled law of the state: Per Mr. Justice Clark.</p> <p>4. The act of March 8, 1872, P. L. 264, entitled “ An Act relating to the Ridge Avenue-Passenger Railway Company,” is unconstitutional and void, in so far as it affects the rights of the city of Philadelphia and reduces the rate of taxation of dividends of said company for city purposes, its title disclosing no intent to alter the city’s rights: Ridge Ave. Ry. Co. v. Philadelphia, 124 Pa. 219.</p> <p>5. The rule that a party to a judgment is estopped from re-litigating questions the decision of which was involved therein, does not extendió estop the plaintiff from setting up in a subsequent action, where the cause of action is not the same, the unconstitutionality of a statute upon which the prior action proceeded.</p> <p>6. Wherefore, although the city, in Philadelphia v. Railway Co., 102 Pa. 190, claimed and recovered a judgment against the Ridge Avenue Railway Co. for the taxes of the y