DocketNumber: Appeal, No. 219
Citation Numbers: 44 Pa. Super. 500
Judges: Beaver, Head, Henderson, Morrison, Orlady, Porter, Rice
Filed Date: 11/21/1910
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 2/18/2022
The facts of this case are not in dispute, and are so clearly set forth in the findings and opinion of the learned judge of the quarter sessions as to render a restatement of them unnecessary. If that court had authority to compel the school district of the township of Guilford to pay the taxes in question to the school district of the borough of Chambersburg, it must be found in sec. 10 of the Act of April 11, 1862, P. L. 471, or the Act of April 3, 1903, P. L. 142. So far as the provisions of these statutes relate to the question presented on this appeal, they are identical, and the language of the particular provision, upon the construction of which the case turns, is as follows: “If any money be on hand or debt unpaid or any taxes or other claims be uncollected after the settlement of all account for the current year.” It may be that when the court has obtained jurisdiction under these acts, it is to proceed upon equitable principles in administering their provisions; but equitable principles cannot be invoked to extend the jurisdiction to matters not contemplated by the statute. Looking at the context, it is quite clear that the provisions, as to uncollected taxes, relate to taxes that were not collected at the end of the current year, that is, the school year in which, in the present case, the portion of the territory of the township was annexed to the borough. The legislature did not contemplate the possibility of directors of a school district levying taxes in the detached portion of the district in subsequent years, and made no provision for such case. And it is immaterial whether this was attempted the next year or a half dozen years after it ceased to be part of the district for every
The decree is afiirmed at the costs of the appellant.