Plains Township's Appeal

Citations

• 21 Pa. Super. 68
• 1902 Pa. Super. LEXIS 309

Syllabus

<p>Municipalities — Indebtedness — Special tax levy— Judgment — Act of March Si, 1864, P. L. 162.</p> <p>The Act of March 31, 1864, P. L. 162, entitled “ An act relating to the collection of district and township debts in the several counties of the commonwealth,” did not provide a new tribunal for the trial of disputed claims growing out of contracts, nor invest the court of quarter sessions with jurisdiction to adjudicate controverted demands against the township. The proceeding here prescribed presupposes that the indebtedness has been previously ascertained and fixed, as by judgment, the auditor’s settlement, or otherwise, so that the decree of the court can be regarded only as executionary.</p> <p>Judgments against a township are, in the absence of jurisdictional defects conclusive, and cannot be attacked in a collateral proceeding in the court of quarter sessions to compel the levy of the special tax to pay the judgments. The mere fact that the aggregate of the judgments exceeded two per cent of the assessed value of the taxable property of the township, is not conclusive of the invalidity of the demands upon which the judgments were founded.</p> <p>A tax levy in a township must be based upon the assessed valuation as revised and equalized by the county commissioners, and not upon the return of the assessors to the commissioners. During the pendency of the appeal in the common pleas the tax must be paid upon the valuation fixed by the board of revision, but when that appeal is determined, the valuation for purposes of taxation becomes that fixed by the court.</p>