Court Opinion

ID: 9735693
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 18:27:48.983096+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:27:00.940502
License: Public Domain

Opinion by
Mr. Justice Jones,
The Borough of Bidley Park in Delaware County enacted a zoning ordinance on October 12, 1948, which provided a comprehensive plan of zoning for the entire borough. Approximately four years later, William Jacobs, the plaintiff, purchased a number of contiguous unimproved lots in the borough for development purposes. All of the lots so purchased were situated in a district zoned by the ordinance as R-l Residential. The minimum building standards prescribed for an R-l Residential District were single-family dwellings, one to a lot, the lots having a minimum width of forty feet each.
Desiring to build semi-detached or other type two-family houses on his lots, Jacobs petitioned the borough council for an amendment of the zoning ordinance to the end that his property would be reclassified as R-2 Residential. Twin or other type two-family houses were permitted by the ordinance in an R-2 Residential District. The council refused Jacobs’ petition. Thereupon, he file his complaint in equity in the instant suit against the burgess, the members of council and the secretary of council of Ridley Park, averring that the property of which he was the owner, was zoned discriminatorily when. compared with the zoning of other designatéd properties: lying to the rear of his property. ' In other' words, the plaintiff’s property was. on the one side of the R-l Residential 'Zone:
The complainant prayed the court to declare the zoning ordinance unconstitutional, illegal and void insofar as it classifies his property as located in an R-l Residential District; that an injunction issue restraining the defendants from taking any action under the *264provisions of the ordinance, or its amendments, affecting his property; and that the court order and direct the borough council to amend the ordinance so that the plaintiff’s land would be reclassified as located within an R-2 Residential District. The defendants answered to the merits. Following a hearing of the case, the chancellor entered a decree nisi which, upon the dismissal of exceptions thereto, was made final by the court en banc. The decree sustained the plaintiff’s bill, declared the ordinance unconstitutional, invalid and of no effect as it applied to the property owned by the plaintiff and restrained the defendants from enforcing the provisions of the ordinance, or its amendments, against the plaintiff’s land insofar as it imposed the restrictions of an R-l Residential classification upon his property. The matter is here on the defendants’ appeal from the final decree.
It. is unnecessary to enter upon a discussion or consideration of the chancellor’s findings and conclusions. The bill of complaint must be dismissed. Equity is without jurisdiction of the matter. The borough’s zoning ordinance was enacted pursuant to authority legislatively conferred on boroughs, originally, by the Act of June 29, 1923, P. L. 957, later supplemented and added to The General Borough Act of 1927, P. L. 519, as Article XXXIII by Section 93 of The Borough Code of 1947,' P. L; 1621, 1833, 53 PS §15211.1 et seq. The constitutionality of zoning statutes has long since been recognized in this State: see Taylor v. Moore, 303 Pa. 469, 472, 154 A. 799. Consequently, no question as to the power of the borough to enact the ordinance is present.
The ordinance provides, as authorized and required by the empowering Act of Assembly, for a board of adjustment, a right of appeal thereto by any person aggrieved by ..a decision of an administrative officer *265and also for an appeal to the court of common pleas of the county by any person aggrieved by a decision of the board of adjustment. In the instant case, however, the plaintiff’s application with respect to his requested use of his property was never taken to the board of adjustment. He applied directly to the borough council for an amendment re-zoning his property, which the council refused to do. It is plain enough that the procedure statutorily prescribed for testing the validity of substantive provisions of a zoning ordinance or the method of its administration is through application to the board of adjustment by one aggrieved by the decision of a borough administrative officer in respect thereof and, thereafter, by appeal to the court of common pleas if the decision of the board of adjustment is likewise adverse.
Section 13 of the Act of March 21, 1806, P. L. 558, 4 Sm. L. 326, 46 PS §156, prescribes that “In all cases where a remedy is provided, or duty enjoined, or anything directed to be done by any act or acts of assembly of this commonwealth, the directions of the said acts shall be strictly pursued, and no penalty shall be inflicted, or anything done agreeably to the provisions of the common law, in such cases, further than shall be necessary for carrying such act or acts into effect.”
In Taylor v. Moore, supra, the plaintiff sought a permit from the zoning inspector for a gasoline station in a district zoned residential. The inspector refused a permit. The plaintiff appealed to the board of adjustment with like result. Instead of pursuing further the statutorily prescribed procedure (i.e., an appeal to the common pleas), the plaintiff sought by mandamus to compel issuance of a permit. The defendant moved to quash the writ on the ground that the plaintiff should have appealed to the court of common pleas from the action of the board of adjustment. *266The plaintiff countered that he could not use the appeal provisions of the zoning ordinance while, at the same time, attacking its provisions as confiscatory. We rejected that contention, however, and noted that the borough’s authority to enact a zoning ordinance and the validity of the procedure for appeal in respect thereof were unquestionable; and that, since the Act of 1806 required pursuit of the statutory remedies, the plaintiff could hot be barred on his appeal to the court of common pleas from pressing his contention of confiscation. By way of analogy, we pointed out that “In assessment of properties, the legislature has provided a special remedy for property owners aggrieved by the acts of the board of revision. In all such cases we have held that the specific remedy must be pursued, though, through unfairness, oppression, or unreasonableness, confiscation may be the question . . . .” It was further observed that “In all cases which we have been able to examine, except one, questions bearing on the constitutionality or validity of a Zoning Act or ordinance have come to us or the Superior Court through the remedy provided in the act of assembly governing zoning [citing cases]. In Herskovitz et ux. v. Irwin et al., 199 Pa. 155, [the one exception noted,] the proceeding was properly for mandamus, as the court pointed out. In that case, after the board had allowed the permit, the right was complete, and no method existed to compel its issuance except mandamus.”
Of course, “If officials act without authority or without power, any appropriate remedy may be used to prevent enforcement of their orders: Byers v. Hempfield Twp., 226 Pa. 278”: Taylor v. Moore, supra. The distinction was well drawn for this court by Mr. Justice Linn in Dougherty v. Philadelphia, 314 Pa. 298, 301, 171 A. 583, as follows: “Equity has jurisdiction *267to restrain attempted taxation for total want of power to tax: [citing cases]. But, where the power to tax appears, and the complaint is over-assessment, or inadequate exemption, the remedy is by appeal to the common pleas from the action of the board of revision: [citing cases and, inter alia, Section 13 of the Act of 1806, supra].”
Neither the learned court below nor counsel for either side questioned equity’s jurisdiction in the premises. When attention was called to the apparent oversight at the argument of this appeal, counsel cited an article entitled Equity Jurisdiction in Zoning Cases (50 Dickinson Law Review 23) by Judge Toal who had heard and disposed of the instant case and whose article, in turn, made reference to Lukens v. Ridley Township Zoning Board of Adjustment, 367 Pa. 608, 80 A. 2d 765. There is nothing in the Lukens case holding or intended to hold that equity has jurisdiction to relieve against the restrictions of a zoning ordinance which has been enacted pursuant to an empowering Act of Assembly. The question was not there involved. True, it was said in the Lukens case that “A petition to change and reclassify approximately 16 acres . . . appears, because of the large acreage involved, to be an application for re-zoning and not for a variance, and if so, the application should be made to the Township Commissioners and not to the Board of Adjustment.” But different rules do not obtain for relieving against oppressive zoning restrictions according to differences in the relative sizes of affected properties. All properties within the same zoned district are subject to the same zoning regulations. If, however, a property owner desires to test the constitutionality or validity otherwise of zoning regulations, application to the Board of Adjustment, in the first instance, for relief, followed by an appeal *268to the common pleas from the Board’s denial of relief, is the means for raising legal questions for judicial determination. Nothing was said in the Lukens case from which it could even be inferred that if the local legislative body refuses to re-zone, when so requested, the applicant can then invoke equity’s jurisdiction and there have the ordinance amended, if not actually nullified. Indeed, the opinion quoted approvingly from Taylor v. Moore, supra, to the effect that “where a remedy or method of procedure is provided or a duty enjoined by any act of assembly, the directions of such act shall be strictly pursued, and we have held that such remedy or procedure is exclusive.”
The learned court below erred in entertaining the bill of complaint which should have been dismissed for want of jurisdiction of the subject-matter.
Decree reversed and bill dismissed at the appellee’s costs.