Witman v. City of Reading

Citations

• 169 Pa. 375
• 32 A. 576
• 1895 Pa. LEXIS 1104

Syllabus

<p>Municipal claims — Front foot rule of assessment.</p> <p>No properties can be assessed for the cost of a sewer except those that abut on the line of it.</p> <p>Hence, when an ordinance passed by the councils of the city of Reading, a city of the third class, divided the city into sewer districts, and provided that when in any of the said districts, main sewers shall be used as local sewers, such part of the cpst of those main sewers which may also serve for local sewers, as well as the cost of all lateral or branch sewers, “ shall be assessed on the properties abutting thereon by an equal assessment by the foot front rule, which rate per foot shall be ascertained by dividing the total cost and expense of construction of the sewers in any district,, less the excess cost of any main sewer over and above the portion of the cost and expense required for local sewerage, by the total number of feet-, front of property in said district, the quotient being the price per foot,” it was held that the assessment was illegal as to the excess beyond what any particular property would have been charged for the sewer in front of it.</p> <p>It seems that the injunction should have been confined to.collecting the excess. “While the foot front rule of assessment, it is true, does not express a principle of taxation, but me.rely a convenient method, yet its foundation is not in uniformity of value, but in uniformity of benefit.” By Mr. Justice Mitchell.</p> <p>Hence also it was held to be error to enjoin the collection of the whole assessment, because of the application of the foot front rple.</p>