Wagner v. Township of Salzburg

Citations

• 132 Pa. 636
• 19 A. 294
• 1890 Pa. LEXIS 861

Syllabus

<p>1. Neither the commonwealth nor any municipality through whose territory a public road passes, is liable to landowners for damages sustained by them through the exercise of the state’s power of eminent domain in the laying out and opening of the road, until made so by legal enactment: Feree v. Meily, 3 Y. 153; and when a statute gives to landowners a specific remedy for the recovery of such damages, that remedy must be pursued.</p> <p>2. When viewers appointed to lay out a road and assess the damages arising therefrom, have given public notice of their meeting, a landowner to whom they have awarded no damages is concluded in a collateral proceeding by a decree confirming their report, although he had no personal notice of the view; such owner should at the earliest opportunity apply for a review, except to the report, or ask for the opening of the confirmation.</p> <p>3. A township, charged by a local statute with the payment of damages arising from the opening of a public road under order of the Court of Quarter Sessions, is not a municipal corporation invested with the power of eminent domain, within the purview of § 8, article XVI. of the constitution, and it incurs no liability to an action of trespass by a landowner for the recovery of such damages.</p>