Tyrone Gas & Water Co. v. Burley

Citations

• 19 Pa. Super. 348
• 1902 Pa. Super. LEXIS 100

Syllabus

<p>Justice of the peace — Appeals—Action for penalty.</p> <p>The court of common pleas cannot upon appeal reverse a judgment of a justice of the peace in an action for a penalty, where no issue of either law or fact has been developed by the pleadings, and no case stated by the parties. When the court allows such an appeal the proceeding becomes one in assumpsit in the common pleas and must take the course pursued in appeals from all judgments of justices in actions of assumpsit, save that affidavits of defense are not by the procedure act of 1887 required in actions for penalties.</p> <p>Water companies — Constitutional law — Police power.</p> <p>The Act of April 29, 1874, sec. 34, clause 5, P. L. 94, imposing a penalty for turning on the water of a water company without authority, is a legitimate exercise of the police power of the commonwealth, and is intended to protect the interest of the public by investing those who have undertaken to discharge a duty to the public with the absolute control of the instrumentalities for discharging that duty.</p> <p>Water companies — Boroughs—Turning on water without authority.</p> <p>Where a water company turns off the water from the plugs of a borough because the borough has refused to pay the rate prescribed by the company, and thereafter the borough council passes a resolution that a committee of council shall with the aid of a plumber and the police turn on the water at the plugs of the borough, the individual members of the committee and the plumber who actually turned on the water which should have been turned off are liable for the pbnalty provided by the act of April 29, 1874, and they cannot shield themselves from such liability under cover of the resolution of the borough council.</p> <p>Where a borough has refused to pay the rate fixed by a water company and has refused to take any steps to have such rate adjusted by the court of common pleas in the manner provided by law, the water company is not required to furni