Pottsville v. Jones
Pottsville v. Jones
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The first páving which exempts an abutting property owner from liability for any subsequent improvement, is one that is put down originally or adopted or acquiesced in subsequently by the municipal authority for the purpose, and with the intent of changing an ordinary road into a street: Philadelphia v. Eddleman, 169 Pa. 452. Two elements are necessary to evidence this fact: the character of the construction and the intention of the municipality to convert a common road into a permanently improved street. The controlling consideration, however, is affirmative municipal intention. This intention may be shown by an original ordinance directing the construction or by acquiescence or adoption. It can never be assumed. It must be proven. The sufficiency of the evidence showing intention is always for the court, but where the evidence is sufficient to warrant a finding of intention, it is for the jury, generally, to find it as a fact: Harrisburg v. Funk, 200 Pa. 348. Adoption or acquiescence, as showing municipal intention must be limited and confined to acts which deal with the highway as an improved street, and consists of such acts which recognize the construction employed and the results obtained as being- sufficient to stamp upon the particular highway the fact of a permanently improved street as such term is generally known, and those rules and ordinances of the municipality which provide better projection for such street than an ordinary dirt road, by those who use and occupy it, as water companies, gas companies, etc., and the conduct of the municipality itself, through its proper offices, or the minutes or ordinances of the council, in recognizing this construction as being of a permanent nature, treating it in the same manner as an unquestionable paved thoroughfare of the municipality, these are acts which tend to show municipal in
A too rigid construction is placed upon the defendant’s fifth point. The word “acquiesce” was used in con
The assignments of error are overruled and the judgment is affirmed.
Reference
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- Road law — Paving—Original paving — Conversion of road info street — Intention—Evidence—Province of court and jury — Municipalities. The first paving which exempts an abutting property owner from liability for any subsequent improvement is one that is put down originally, or adopted or acquiesced in subsequently, by the municipal authorities for the purpose and with the intent of changing an ordinary road into a street. This intention may be shown by an original ordinance directing the construction, or by acquiescence or adoption. The sufficiency of the evidence showing intention is always for the court, but where the evidence is sufficient to warrant the finding of intention, it is for the jury, generally, to find it as a fact. Such acts of the municipality which recognize the highway as ,a highway and provide for the safety, convenience, comfort and security of the citizens living along or using it, are not acts which recognize or show an intention of adopting a system of construe' tion as being equivalent to a permanent improvement, such as would relieve an abutting property owner from liability for municipal improvements. The municipality has the exclusive right to determine, in the public interest when, how, and with what material a conversion from an ordin'ary road into a street shall take place. While no particular material is necessary to constitute such pavement, it may be made of anything which will produce a hard, firm, smooth surface for traveling. Macadamizing may be regarded as a first paving, if it was the intention of the municipal authorities to so use it. If the construction consists in tearing up the street and placing large stones on end, rolling them with a steamroller, placing on this a layer of trap rock and screenings, and watering and rolling this to make a firm, hard surface, it will constitute a first paving, if the municipal authorities so intend. It is not conclusive against the intention that the cost of the first paving was not provided for from any specific appropriation, but paid out of the general revenue; nor is the fact that no formal ordinance directed the work to be done, material. Evidence relative to the macadamizing of other streets in the borough, offered for the purpose of showing a system of improved street construction, is admissible; and it is also proper to show that an ordinance provided for permits for opening macadamized street as distinguished from other streets. A defendant resisting an assessment for wood paving is not es-topped because he had requested the borough council, when they were about to make the new improvement, that wood block should be used.