Case Name: Girard Trust Company, Trustee, Appellant, v. Pennsylvania Railroad Company
Court: Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Jurisdiction: Pennsylvania
Decision Date: 1950-05-22
Citations: 364 Pa. 576
Docket Number: Appeals, Nos. 203 and 204
Parties: Girard Trust Company, Trustee, Appellant, v. Pennsylvania Railroad Company.
Judges: Before- Drew, C. J., Stern, Stearns, Jones and Bell, JJ.
Reporter: Pennsylvania State Reports
Volume: 364
Pages: 576–578

Head Matter:
Girard Trust Company, Trustee, Appellant, v. Pennsylvania Railroad Company.
Argued April 20, 1950.
Before- Drew, C. J., Stern, Stearns, Jones and Bell, JJ.
Boyd Lee Spahr, with him Knox Henderson and' Ballard, Spahr, Andrews d Ingersoll, for appellants.
Charles Myers, with him Robert M. Landis and Barnes, Deehert, Price, Myers d Clark, for appellees.
Thomas P. Mikell, with him Edward M. David, Maurice Bower Saul and Saul, Ewing, Remick d Saul, for Corporate Fiduciaries Association of Philadelphia, amicus curiae.
Harry F. Stambaugh, Special Deputy Attorney General, with him T. McKeen Chidsey, Attorney General, for Commonwealth.
May 22, 1950:

Opinion:
Opinion
per Curiam,
The Act of May 23,1949, P. L. 1692, is so incomplete, conflicting and inconsistent in its various provisions and so unsusceptible of rational interpretation as a whole as to be incapable of judicial enforcement: cf. Willcox v. Penn Mutual Life Insurance Co., 357 Pa. 581, 601, 55 A. 2d 521. In addition thereto, the Act offends against both the Federal and State Constitutions by attempting deprivations of private property without due process of law and by impairing the obligations of valid and subsisting contracts. The Act is therefore void as well as inoperative. Nothing more need be said in justification of these conclusions than is contained in the able opinion of President Judge Smith for the court below.
The several decrees are separately affirmed; each party to pay its own costs.