United Brethren Congregation v. Borough

Citations

• 56 Pa. Super. 136
• 1914 Pa. Super. LEXIS 59

Syllabus

<p>Road law — Opening streets — Consent of owner — Act of May 9, 1889, P. L. 173 — Act of June 1, 1911, P. L. 51fi.</p> <p>1. The Act of May 9, 1889, P. L. 173, which provides that no street laid out by any person by a plan of lots, which has not been opened for twenty-one years, shall be opened without consent of the owner, does not apply to a plan of streets made by a borough without the owners of the land having participated therein or dedicated the streets to public use.</p> <p>2. The Act of June 1, 1911, P. L. 541, which provides that proceedings to open a street shall not be proceeded with by a borough unless the same are started within two years after the passage of the ordinance locating the street, is not retroactive. If proceedings are started within the two years they need not be fully ended within that time.</p> <p>Road law — Streets—Burial ground — Act of April 5, 1889, P. L. 397.</p> <p>3. The Act of April 5, 1849, P. L. 397, prohibiting the opening of a street through burial grounds does not apply to a case where a borough by ordinance in 1871, prohibited the opening of a burial ground within the borough without the municipal consent, and the borough by ordinance in 1875 laid out a street on land then used for agricultural purposes, and a religious congregation acquired title to the land in 1885, and continued to use it for agricultural purposes until 1910, when it notified the borough that it intended to use the land for a burial ground. In such a case the congregation cannot prevent the borough in 1912, from opening the street in question.</p>