Pittsburg v. W. H. Keech Co.

Citations

• 21 Pa. Super. 548
• 1902 Pa. Super. LEXIS 408

Syllabus

<p>Nuisance — Municipalities —Smoke from bituminous coal — Power of'legisture.</p> <p>Within constitutional limits, not exactly determined, the legislature may change the common law as to nuisances, and may move the line either way so as to make things-nuisances which were not so, or to make things lawful which were nuisances, although by so doing it affects the value or use of property.</p> <p>The corporate officers of a city, having power “ to provide for the safety, preserve the health, promoté the prosperity and improve the morals, order, comfort and convenience of tlie corporation and the inhabitants thereof,” may by ordinance duly enacted, not manifestly unreasonable or oppressive, nor unwarrantably discriminatory, prohibit things which were not public nuisances at common law, and the fact that it declares the thing prohibited a public nuisance would be no ground for deny ing validity to the penal provision of the ordinance. In an action or proceeding to enforce the penalty annexed to the violation of such an ordinance, the only question would be whether the alleged offender had done the prohibited act. He could not defend upon the ground that it was not a nuisance in fact, nor upon the ground that the enactment of the ordinance was unwise, inexpedient or unnecessary. Much must necessarily be left to the discretion of the municipal authorities and their acts will not be judicially interfered with unless they are manifestly unreasonably and oppressive, or unwarrantably invade private rights, or clearly transcended the powers granted to them.</p> <p>While the inclusion in such an ordinance of a declaration that the thing prohibited is a public nuisance would not invalidate the ordinance as a a whole, it is equally clear that it would not make it a nuisance if it was not so in fact. Much clearer is it that a mere declaration in an ordinance with no penalty annexed, that a certain act or thing shall be deemed a public or common nuisance would not have that effect