Case ID: watts-serg_8/html/0074-01.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

The Pitt Township Road Case.
    That portion of Pitt township which adjoins the city of Pittsburgh, and which by Act of Assembly is created a city district, is subject to the general road laws until it is admitted into the city according to the provisions of the 11th section of the Act of 16th June 1836.
    
      CERTIORARI to the Quarter Sessions of Allegheny county.
    The question which arose in this case was whether that part of Pitt township, Allegheny county, which was created into a city district by the Act of the 16th June 1836, was subject to the general road laws under the jurisdiction of the Court of Quarter Sessions.
    The court below was of opinion that they had no jurisdiction of the subject, and set aside the report of viewers locating a road.
    
      Williamson and Woods, for plaintiff in error,
    cited 4 Gill, & Johns. 152; 2 Whart. 114; 4 Serg. & Rawle 106.
    
      Hamilton, for defendant in error.
   Per Curiam.

The principle of this case was determined in the case of Fitzwater Road, which resembles the present in all respects except that it is not so strong. The twelfth section of the Act for laying out the city district, orders that until the sections shall respectively have been admitted as parts of the city, they shall be deemed and taken as parts of the district and township to which the same belong.” Why then shall they not be subject to the general road law, in the mean time, like any other part of the township ? The city district comprises a tract of several square miles; and half a century may pass before it shall have been brought entirely within the corporate limits of the city. Shall not the inhabitants be accommodated with roads and highways till then ? If these should be found to mar the symmetry of the general plan, they can readily be vacated at the proper time by a report of viewers under the existing law, or by an Act of the Legislature ; but the inhabitants are not to be debarred of the present use of them.

Order to quash reversed, and procedendo awarded.