Reynolds Street Sewer
Reynolds Street Sewer
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
Under an ordinance approved October 2,1900, the city of Pittsburg constructed a sewer on Reynolds street with lateral branches on intersecting streets. After the completion of the work, viewers were appointed on the petition of the cityr to ascertain the cost, damages and expenses and assess the benefits growing out of the improvement. Exceptions were filed by the appellant which were overruled by the court — hence, this appeal. Two objections are made to the action of the viewers : (1) that the exceptor was charged with benefits for the purpose of paying land damages to other property owners ; and (2) the viewers should have assessed benefits and damages for the sewer oh each street as a separate improvement. The exceptions were dismissed without prejudice to the right of the ex-ceptor to raise the same question on appeal. A third exception was filed alleging that the assessment was excessive, but its dismissal is not assigned for error and we may assume that it is not maintained by the facts. No testimony was taken and the questions involved must be determined by the record presented. We do not find anything which furnishes a sufficient basis to sustain the first exception. The whole cost of the sewer as shown by the report of the viewers was $96,517.58. There was the additional cost of $16,851 for damages, apart from special benefits, making the entire cost of the improvement
The exceptions do not raise the questions presented in Park Avenue Sewers, 169 Pa. 433, and Beech wood Avenue, 179 Pa. 490. The first case held that the cost of constructing a sewer
The arguments of the counsel included a consideration of the question whether the viewers should have set forth in the report the damages sustained by an abutting owner where the special benefits exceeded the damages. This question does not appear to have been raised by the assignments of error, however, and it may not have been taken into consideration by the court. Conceding the effect of Dawson v. City of Pittsburg, 159 Pa. 317, to be as claimed by the appellant, we are not shown that the viewers made a mistake in their report. Special damages are allowed in several cases in favor of owners where assessments are made against the same owners for special benefits. It does not necessarily follow that the construction of the sewer through the property of the appellant resulted in damage to him. The fact that there were special damages allowed, and a separate assessment of benefits in the instances referred to, leads to the belief that the viewers did not consider the appellant’s property damaged by the improvement. In our consideration of the case we have not found a substantial basis for the appellant’s exceptions. The merits of his case on questions of fact can be fully considered in his appeal pending in the court of common pleas.
The assignments are overruled and the decree affirmed.
Reference
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- Syllabus
- Sewers — Benefits—Land damages — Assessment. On exceptions to a report of viewers assessing benefits and damages growing out of the construction of a sewer, where it appears that a large sum was assessed against the city, it will be assumed that such assessment included the land damages, inasmuch as there can be no assessments of benefits in sewer cases to individual owners to pay land damages. Where an ordinance provides for a trunk sewer with lateral branches, and it appears that the work was undertaken as a whole and let to one firm of contractors, a property owner whose property has been assessed for benefits, cannot object on exceptions that separate juries of view were not appointed for the trunk sewer and its respective lateral branches.