Whitmire v. Township of Muncy Creek

Citations

• 17 Pa. Super. 399
• 1901 Pa. Super. LEXIS 326

Syllabus

<p>Statutes — Buies for construction of statutes.</p> <p>Before adopting any proposed construction of a passage in a statute susceptible of more than one meaning, the courts deem it important to consider the effect or consequences which would result from the proposed construction.</p> <p>Several acts in pari materia, and relating to the same subject, are to be taken together and compared in the construction of them because they are considered as having one object in view and as acting upon one system.</p> <p>It is a presumption that the legislature does not intend to make any alteration in the law beyond what it explicitly declares either in express terms or by unmistakable implication; in other words beyond the immediate scope and object of the statute. In all general matters beyond, the law remains undisturbed.</p> <p>Bridges — Bepair of bridges — Counties—Townships—Acts of April 13, 1843, P. L. 221, March 30, 1859, P. L. 309, and March 12, 1860, P. L. 144.</p> <p>It was not the intention of the legislature in passing the Act of March 30, 1859, P. L. 309, extended to the county of Lycoming under the Act of March 12, 1860, P. L. 144, to make township supervisors agents of county commissioners to repair bridges which had been built by the county, nor to impose upon the county the duty of keeping in repair such bridges. Townships are liable for such repairs, and the personal liability of supervisors for neglect to perform this duty does not lessen the primary liability of the township to those who suffer injury from the neglect.</p> <p>. Negligence — Townships—Defective bridge.</p> <p>In an action against a township to recover damages for injuries to a threshing machine sustained by the breaking of a floor beam of a bridge, the township will not be heard to allege that the defect was due to the original construction of the bridge by the county, where it appears that the beam had been in place between fifty and sixty years, and the evidence showed that the breaking of