Wilkinsburg Borough School District Case

Citations

• 247 Pa. 449
• 93 A. 489
• 1915 Pa. LEXIS 861

Syllabus

<p>Practice, G. P. — Payment into court — Mechanics’ liens — Act of April 22, 190S, P. L. 255 — Payment under act — Return of payment — Estoppel.</p> <p>1. Where a fund alleged to be duo a contractor was paid into court by a school district under a provision of the mechanics’ lien Act of April 22, 1903, P. L. 255, which was subsequently declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, the lower court erred in refusing the return of the fund to the school district and in ordering it paid into the hands of the trustee in bankruptcy of the contractor.</p> <p>2. In such case the school district, by the payment of such fund into court and proceeding under the act in question, is not es-topped from asserting its claim against the fund for damages alleged to have been suffered prior to such payment into court through the failure of the contractor to complete the contract, where the statute of limitation has not run, where no one has changed his position for the worse since or because the proceeding was taken, and where the court below h.as not thereby been led to adopt a particular course from which it could not properly recede.</p> <p>3. While under some circumstances a party who has availed himself of the benefits of an unconstitutional piece of legislation may be estopped from asserting its invalidity, even in such cases the usual rule is applied that an estoppel will never bo given effect when a refusal so to do will not prejudice the one who asserts the estoppel.</p>