West Chester Borough v. West Chester Street Railway Co.

Citations

• 203 Pa. 201
• 52 A. 252
• 1902 Pa. LEXIS 685

Syllabus

<p>Street railways — Paving streets — Boroughs—Repairs and repaving.</p> <p>A borough ordinance granting to a street railway company the right to use streets provided that the company “ shall at all times keep the space bptween their tracks and eighteen inches outside thereof in good repair, and to conform to the macadamizing or paving in the borough.” Another section provided “that whenever the borough shall hereafter pave or macadamize any street or streets along the line of said railway, with asphalt blocks, asphalt sheeting or broken stone, the said street railway company, their successors or assigns, shall at the same time pave and macadamize the street occupied by the railway, that is to say, between the tracks of said railway and eighteen inches outside thereof, on each side of said railway with the same kind of blocks or material with which the borough paves and macadamizes the said street or streets.” A resolution of the borough council provided “ that by way of encouraging the construction of an efficient street railway in the borough, the railway company be relieved from the obligations of keeping in repair the street, streets or parts of streets, occupied by their tracks until such time.as said company shall either earn or pay a dividend to its stockholders on the capital stock of the company, which shall be paid up to the time of said earning or payment, or until such time as either or both of these contingencies shall happen.” Held, that while the railway company was relieved from making ordinary repairs by the terms of the relief resolution, it was bound under the ordinance to pave with asphalt between its rails and eighteen inches outside each rail, portions of the older streets of the borough from which the old macadamized pavement had been removed, and on which the borough had laid an asphalt pavement.</p>