Case ID: pa_159/html/0517-01.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

Philadelphia, to use, Appellant, v. Bradfield.
    
      Municipal claims — Sewers—Assumpsit.
    An action of assumpsit cannot be maintained to recover a municipal . assessment for the construction of a sewer.
    Argued Jan. 16, 1894.
    Appeal, No. 45, July T., 1893, by plaintiffs, from judgment of C. P. No. 3, Phila. Co., Sept. T., 1891, No. 591, sustaining demurrer to statement, in favor of defendant, Mary Bradfield. Argued with preceding case.
    Assumpsit for municipal assessment for construction of sewer.
    Defendant demurred to the statement on the ground that no personal claim existed for the debt, and that the only remedy was by a proceeding in rem. The court sustained the demurrer. The record was printed in the same paper-book as that of the preceding case.
    
      Errors assigned, were (1) in sustaining demurrer; (2) entering judgment for defendant; (3) not overruling demurrer.
    
      Charles E. Pancoast, E. Spencer Miller with him, for appellant.
    No counsel appeared contra.
    January 29, 1894:
   Per Curiam,

This action of assumpsit was brought to collect the frontage charges against defendant’s property on Hamilton street, for the construction of a sewer in said street, as set forth in plaintiff’s statement. The only assigned cause of demurrer is: “ No personal claim exists for the alleged debt, but the law gives therefor only an action in rem against the land.” The .court below .evidently.-thought, witb the defendant^ that the collection of such municipal claims, by a personal action against the owner of the abutting property, was unauthorized, and judgment for the defendant was accordingly entered. We have not been referred to any act of assembly that authorizes the collection of such claims otherwise than by the familiar proceeding in rem. Neither of the specifications of error is sustained.

Judgment affirmed.