Martin v. Adams County Area Vocational Technical School Authority
Martin v. Adams County Area Vocational Technical School Authority
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
On April 23,1973, plaintiffs-appellants brought this action in equity to enjoin defendants-appellees from proceeding with the construction of an area vocational-technical school on a 24.775 acre tract of land purchased by appellees from Adams County for a purchase price of $100,000.00. The estimated project cost was alleged to be $3,620,000.
We summarize the reasons alleged by appellants in the complaint, as amended, to support their claim that the court should exercise its extraordinary powers to perpetually enjoin appellees from using the site they selected:
(1) No feasibility study has been made, including a traffic study;
(2) Other and more desirable land is available at a lesser price;
(4) Cost of sewerage facilities and services would be less on other sites;
(5) Construction costs would be less on other sites;
(6) The 24.775 acre tract is too small, and there is no additional land available for expansion at the proposed site;
(7) The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation may comment adversely on this site and jeopardize $473,000.00 in federal grants;
(8) The project was being pressed to avoid the necessity of a public hearing in the event the then proposed “Taj Mahal” bill was adopted by the General Assembly;
(9) If appellees are enjoined, no loss would be suffered in that the agreement with the County of Adams, grantor, provides that if the land is not used for school purposes, it will revert and the $100,000 will be refunded;
(10) The investigation of the suitability of the site was improperly delegated to a joint operating committee of the Area Vocational-Technical School Board rather than performed by the full Board;
(11) All actions taken since December 1971 by the joint operating committee are a nullity since it has not properly organized and elected officers according to Article XVIII of the Public School Code of 1949, Act of March 10, 1949, P. L. 30, as amended, 24 P.S. §18-1850.3(d).
We have summarized the alleged basis of appellants’ complaints in such detail because the lower court has sustained a preliminary objection by appellees that the appellants are guilty of laches in delaying from March 7, 1972, the date the option to purchase was obtained, until April 23, 1973, when the complaint was filed. We must affirm.
Based upon the above discussion, we affirm the order of the court below.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.