Plymouth Township v. Larksville Borough

Citations

• 268 Pa. 45
• 110 A. 801
• 1920 Pa. LEXIS 627

Syllabus

<p>Boroughs — Townships—Creation of borough out of township— Adjustment of debt — Cost of highway — Acts of June 12, 1878, P. L. 184, and May 1, 1905, P. L. 818.</p> <p>1. Where a borough was erected out of a township on November 10, 1909, in pursuance of the Act of June 12, 1878, P. L. 184, and it appears that in the previous March the township officials had entered into a contract with the State highway commissioner by which the township agreed to pay a part of the cost of a State highway within the township, as provided by the Act of May 1, 1905, P. L. 318, the borough is liable for its proportion of the indebtedness under such contract, in the adjustment of the liabilities and indebtedness between the township and the borough; and this is the case although no part of the highway was included within the limits of the borough, and the improvement of the highway was not completed until more than a year after the incorporation of the borough.</p> <p>2. Such liability is an existing indebtedness within the meaning of the Act of June 12, 1878, P. L. 184, which provides that “every borough which has boon or may hereafter be erected out of any township......shall share, in just proportion, in the rights and liabilities of said township......existing at the time of its incorporation.”</p> <p>Words and phrases — Debt—Liability.</p> <p>3. A “debt” in the legislative sense, is a fixed and certain obligation to pay money or some other valuable thing or things, either in the present or in the future.</p> <p>4. The term “liability” is a word of wider import than “debt,” and includes every kind of obligation, even obligations that are unascertained or imperfect, as distinguished from debts, in that the latter are certain and determined.</p>