Donley v. City of Pittsburgh
Donley v. City of Pittsburgh
Opinion of the Court
The hearing of this cause was advanced, with the others involving similar questions, for public reasons, and was argued at the present term in the Eastern district.
The plaintiffs owned a lot on South Twenty-eighth street, in the city of Pittsburgh, which had been assessed for street improvements, under what is known as the remedial act of May 16, 1891, P. L. 71. It is claimed that this act is unconstitutional, and this is the only question in the case.
The street improvements in question were made under the authority of the acts of June 14, 1887, P. L. 386, and May 16, 1889, P. L. 228. The decision of this court in Wyoming Street, 137 Pa. 494, and in Pittsburgh’s Petition, 138 Pa. 401, held, that the said acts of 1887 and 1889 were unconstitutional. This left the city of Pittsburgh without the power to ■collect from the owners of abutting property the cost of the street improvements completed and in course of construction. It was to remedy this difficulty that the said act of May 16, 1891, was passed.
It was urged that this act does not apply, because the improvements in question were made under void acts of assembly, and without any authority whatever. If they had been ■made under competent authority, or a valid act of assembly, there would have been no need of this curative legislation. The work having been done under void authority, and the
It was urged, however, that even if the act applies, it is unconstitutional by reason of a defect in the title. We find nothing in any of our cases to sustain this contention. It would be difficult to frame an act with a more comprehensive title, unless the title is made an index to the act itself, which we have repeatedly held not to be necessary. We have examined the act section by section with great care, and do not find any objectionable features. We do not think it necessary to discuss it in detail. It is a general act, applying to all cities in the commonwealth, and the propriety of some such act was plainly foreshadowed in the opinion of this court in the case of Pittsburgh’s Petition, supra.
The decree is affirmed and the appeal dismissed at the costs of the appellants.
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- Constitutional law — Act of May 16, 1891. The act of May 16, 1891, P. L. 71, providing for assessments on property owners for street improvements made under the void acts of June 14, 1887, P. L. 386, and May 16,1889, P. L. 228, is constitutional. The property owners having received the benefits of the improvements, the legislature had the clear right to provide for the assessments, thus legalizing what it might previously have ordered. Title of act. Art. Ill, §3 of constitution of 1874. The purposes of the act of May 16, 1891, entitled “An Act, authorizing 4he ascertainment, levy, assessment and collection of the costs, damages and expenses of municipal improvements, including the grading, paving, macadamizing or otherwise improving of any street, lane or alley or parts thereof completed or now in process of completion and also the costs, damages and expenses of the construction of any sewer completed or now in process of completion and authorizing the completion of any such improvement,” are sufficiently stated in its title, and the act does not violate article IH., sec. 3 of the constitution of 1874.