Court Opinion

ID: 9750625
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 15:12:27.249178+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:26:14.775781
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Mr. Chief Justice Bell :
I dissent.
I believe the plaintiff home owner has and should have a standing in equity to challenge the legality of a funeral home in this zoning district and that such standing is not and should not be limited to those property owners who have an injury “special and peculiar” to his property or their properties. An outstanding example would be a suit to enjoin a nuisance.
Even more relevant and important, the zoning ordinance of the Borough of Dunmore, Lackawanna County, pertinently and controllingly provides: “7.901 Initiation of Appropriate Action. In case any building or structure is erected, constructed, reconstructed, altered, repaired, converted, or maintained* or any building, structure or land is used in violation of this Ordinance, or of any ordinance or regulation made under authority *34conferred hereby, the Zoning Official, or other proper enforcement official or any citizen of the Borough, in addition to other remedies, may institute any appropriate action of proceedings to prevent such unlawful erection, conversion, maintenance or use, to restrain, correct, or abate such violation within 10 days and to prevent the occupancy of said building, structure to land, or to prevent any illegal act, conduct, business or use in or about such premises.”
For each of these reasons, I dissent.

Italics throughout, ours.