Thirteenth Street

Citations

• 38 Pa. Super. 265
• 1909 Pa. Super. LEXIS 124

Syllabus

<p>Road law — Change of grade — Change of ownership — Act of May 16, 1891, P. L. 75.</p> <p>1. Where an ordinance authorizes the change of grade of a street which had already been opened as a public highway, the person entitled to receive the damages for the injury resulting from the change of grade is the owner at the time the actual work on the ground is begun, and not the owner at an earlier date; and this is the case even if the petition for the appointment of viewers had been presented by the owner of an earlier date. This was the law prior to the passage of the Act of May 16, 1891, P. L. 75, and that act has not established a different rule.</p> <p>2. The right to compensation in such a case accrues to the owner, and the cause of action arises only when the injury is complete, and the injury is complete under the constitutional provision relating to the taking or injury of private property for public use, as soon as the part of the work which will do the injury is begun.</p> <p>3. The fact that the fourth section of the Act of May 16, 1891, P. L. 75, authorizes the appointment of viewers before or at any time after the entry, taking or injury of a property, does not change the rule as to the person entitled to receive the damages.</p> <p>4. Viewers appointed to ascertain the damages, costs and expenses in the grading of a street, cannot make the report required by the act, until the costs and expenses of the grading have been ascertained. It follows from this that although viewers may be appointed prior to the actual work, they cannot make their report until the costs and expenses of it have been ascertained.</p> <p>5. The proceedings between the appointment of the viewers and the beginning of the actual work is tentative and experimental, and it is only when the municipality takes the property, or enters upon the actual work, that its liability becomes fixed, and the then owner becomes entitled to compensation.</p>