Case ID: pa_80/html/0165-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Per Curiam.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Reserve Township Road.
    1: As a general rule a road cannot be located on another regularly laid out and. opened.
    2. A road may be laid on another so far as it may be necessary to reach the point.of ending called for in the order.
    3. Viewers in order to reach the ending named in the order, laid out a road on another of thirty-three feet width; the court below confirmed the road and ordered the whole to be opened forty feet wide. The Supreme Court affirmed the order except so far as it increased the width of the old road; as to that part the order was quashed.
    4. The jurisdiction to widen roads is special, under Act of May 8th 1850, sect. 8, and the adjacent landowners must have notice of the proceedings.
    5. Hess Mill Road, 9 Harris 217 ; Southampton Road, 9 Harris 356, followed.
    October 18th 1874.
    Before Agnbw, C. J., Sharswood, Williams, Mercur and Gordon, JJ.
    Certiorari to the Court of Quarter Sessions of Allegheny county : Of October and November Term 1874, No. 28.
    On the 2d of November 1872, a number of inhabitants of Reserve township petitioned the court for the view of a road “from the northern end of Stanton avenue, &c., to a point on the Troy Hill road at or near its junction with the Spring Garden Run road.” A view was appointed, who, on the 7th December, reported a road between the points named. On the 18th of January 1873 a review was appointed, who, on the 3d of March, reported a road, beginning at the north end of Stanton avenue and running by various courses and distances, — different from those reported by the view, — “ to the centre of the Troy Hill road, thence along the centre of said road * * * and along the same * * * to a point near the junction of the said Troy Hill road with the Spring Garden Run road.” On the same day the report was approved nisi “ and the width of the road reported, when confirmed, to be forty feet.”
    Exceptions were filed to the report. On the 6th of December 1873, the exceptions were overruled and the road as reported by the re-viewers was confirmed absolutely.
    The petitioners for the view removed the record to the Supreme Court, by certiorari.
    Amongst other errors they assigned the following:—
    7. Confirming and fixing width of road reported by re-viewers, so as thereby to widen to 40 feet about 57 perches of the old Troy Hill road, long since fixed at 33 feet in width.
    8. Confirming road reported by the re-viewers, which adopts about 57 perches of the Troy Hill road (33 feet wide), when proposed road ought to lead first into said Troy Hill road at a point about 70 perches distant from where reported road does.
    9. Confirming road reported by re-viewers, when same is located so as to lead to the Troy Hill road at a point about 70 perches distant from its junction with the Spring Garden Run road, instead of being located to a point on the Troy Hill road at or near said junction, as the petition asks.
    
      Bayne Magee and Marshall Patterson, for certiorari.—
    The viewers had no power to locate a road running to the Troy Mill road at a point materially different from its junction with the Spring Garden Run road: Lower Merion Road, 8 P. F. Smith 66; Boyer’s Road, 1 Wright 257; Hellertown Road, 5 W. & S. 202. When the new road struck the Troy Hill road it ended: Noble Street, 5 Wharton 333; Southampton Road, 9 Harris 366. The old Troy Hill road could be widened only by a proceeding directly for that purpose; it could not be done by a collateral proceeding without notice to parties interested: Vernon Township Road, 20 P. F. Smith 23; Norriton Township Road, 4 Barr 338; Schuylkill Co.’s Appeal, 2 Wright 463; Church Road, 5 W. & S. 200; Act of May 8th 1850, sect. 8, Pamph. L. 715, 2 Br. Purd. 1277, pl. 40.
    
      A. M. Watson, eontrá.
    October 26th 1874,
   Judgment was entered in the Supreme Court,

Per Curiam.

The general rule is that viewers cannot locate a road upon another legally laid out and opened. But it has been held that they may do this so far as it may be necessary to reach the point of termination called for in the order: Road from West Chester Road to Chester and Germantown Road, 2 Rawle 421; Hess Mill Road, 9 Harris 217; Southampton Road, Id, 356. The mere objection to the adoption of the Troy Hill road, so far as it was thus necessary to reach the point of termination at or near the Spring Garden Run road, would not alone be tenable; but the court in this case added seven feet to the width of the Troy Hill road, without a petition for the widening of the road under the Act of 8th May 1850, Brightly 1277, pl. 40, or an allowance of damages for the land thus taken or release filed. The jurisdiction to widen roads is special, and the landowners adjacent should have notice of the purpose, otherwise they may be misled. A landowner could not know by the petition to locate a new road that an intention to widen an old one existed and might forbear to pursue his claim for damages when he found that the viewers had adopted the old route. Justice can be done in this case by confirming the report of viewers and order of the court below, except as to the widening of the Troy Hill road. It is therefore ordered and decreed that the proceedings of the Court of Quarter Sessions be confirmed except so much thereof as orders the widening of the Troy Hill road to the width of forty feet, as to which excess of seven feet the order of the court is quashed.