Sturges' Appeal

Citations

• 240 Pa. 44
• 87 A. 592
• 1913 Pa. LEXIS 628

Syllabus

<p>Municipal law — Street improvements — Assessment of benefits— Defenses — Nonuse of street by public — Act of May 9, 1889, P. L. 178 — Dedication—Estoppel.</p> <p>1. The Act of May 9, 1889, P. L. 173, refers only to “unused” streets, and either technical opening or the fact of public use is enough to take a street out of the operation of the act.</p> <p>2. Where the cost of. opening and improving a street for public use has been imposed upon an abutting property owner and he defends on the ground that the street, although formerly dedicated as a public highway, had not been opened or used by the public for twenty-one years, and that under the Act of May 9, 1889, P. L. 173, it could not be lawfully opened or improved without the consent of the abutting property owners, he cannot defeat liability where it appears that the street had been used within twenty-one years as a public highway, although somewhat irregularly.</p> <p>3. Where in such case it appears that the title of the abutting owner had been derived from the original owner of a large tract, and subject to a plan made by such owner, showing the lots in question located .upon a public street, and after such purchase the defendant had acknowledged and ratified the use of the street by erecting a fence along the line thereof, and in other ways, he cannot subsequently defend against an assessment for the cost of a street improvement on the ground that the street could not legally be opened or improved without his consent.</p>