Court Opinion

ID: 9639788
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 16:47:52.735986+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:21.924137
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Mr. Justice Roberts:
The majority correctly reaffirms this Court’s holding in Betcher v. Hay-Roe, 429 Pa. 371, 240 A. 2d 501 (1968), that under the provisions of section 1 of the Act of July 2,1937, P. L. 2747, 12 P.S. §331, “no causal connection was needed between the real estate and the accident.” The majority is also correct when it states “it was unnecessary to circumscribe the ordinary meaning of the word ‘involved’ [by requiring a causal connection] because §331 is self-limiting, permitting extraterritorial service only upon the ‘owner, tenant or user’ of real estate.” (Emphasis supplied.)
However, 1 believe the majority is incorrect when it argues that the self-limiting feature would evaporate if the terms of §331 were applied to the appellee in this action. The self-limiting feature “owner, tenant or user” must apply to one who rents a motel room, even for one night, if all of the words are to be given meaning. It appears to me that appellee was both a *36“tenant” and “user” of the motel room. And if it be argued that appellee did not take up residence long enough to be a tenant, then he still must be considered a user. What other situation could the Legislature possibly have comprehended when it inserted the word “user” into §331?* I think the fact situation presented by this case clearly comes within the terms of the statute, that the self-limiting feature still retains its viability despite this interpretation, and that the Pennsylvania court had jurisdiction over appellee.
Mr. Chief Justice Bell joins in this opinion.

 This Court has defined “use” to be “the right to enjoy, hold or occupy and have the fruits thereof.” Philadelphia v. Merchant & Evans Co., 296 Pa. 126, 131, 145 Atl. 706, 707 (1929). A “user” must be one, therefore, who has these rights; no one would deny that appellee had the right to hold, occupy and enjoy this motel room.