Moxham & Ferndale Bridge Co. v. Cambria County
Moxham & Ferndale Bridge Co. v. Cambria County
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
On September 5, 1906, the requisite number of citizens presented their petition to thé Court of Quarter Sessions of Cambria County, under the Act of May 8, 1876, P. L. 131, praying that a toll bridge belonging to appellee might be condemned, taken as a county bridge and freed of tolls. The matter was 'so proceeded with, in the quarter sessions, that a decree was entered, declaring the bridge a county bridge and that the taking of tolls, thereon should cease. No exceptions were filed on the county’s behalf, but the bridge company appealed to the Superior Court, which affirmed the decree of the quarter sessions (Moxham and Ferndale Bridge, 36 Pa. Superior Ct. 298); thereupon it, the bridge company, appealed to the common pleas from the award of damages made by the jury of view.
No tolls were collected by the bridge company after June 1,1908. On its petition, the venue of the case was changed to Blair County, where, on October 20, 1919, more than eleven years after it had been denied the right to receive revenue from the bridge by the decree of the quarter sessions of Cambria County, a verdict was found in its favor fixing the amount of compensation for the taMng of its property. The County of Cambria filed a motion for judgment in its behalf notwithstanding the verdict, which was refused by the trial court, and from this action it has appealed.
The basis of the appeal is, that the county is not liable to compensate the plaintiff for the taking of its bridge, because the quarter sessions was without Jurisdiction to
The objections now raised should have been broached in the court of quarter sessions; failing to raise them there, and permitting the decree adjudging the bridge a county bridge to be entered without exception, appellant foreclosed its right to challenge that decree anywhere : McClain’s Est., 180 Pa. 231; Wilson v. City of Scranton, 141 Pa. 621.
The judgment is affirmed.
Reference
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- Syllabus
- Bridges—County bridges—Bes adjudicaba.— Quarter sessions— Common pleas—Collateral attach on order of quarter sessions. Where the court of quarter sessions makes an order declaring a bridge a county bridge, and that taking tolls thereon shall cease, and no exceptions are filed thereto, the court of common pleas cannot thereafter, in a proceeding to assess damages for the taking of the bridge, be asked to declare that the bridge is not a county bridge.