Patterson & Co. v. Pennsylvania Reform School
| Decision Date | 28 November 1879 |
| Citation | 92 Pa. 229 |
| Parties | Patterson & Co. <I>versus</I> The Pennsylvania Reform School. |
| Court | Pennsylvania Supreme Court |
Before SHARSWOOD, C. J., MERCUR, GORDON, PAXSON and TRUNKEY, JJ. STERRETT and GREEN, JJ., absent
Error to the Court of Common Pleas of Washington county: Of October and November Term 1879, No. 266.
Braden & Miller and M. C. Acheson, for plaintiffs in error.— The Act of 1834, Purd. Dig. 295, pl. 11-12, provided a remedy by mandamus against counties and townships, and the same remedy was extended to cities and boroughs by subsequents acts.
The Act of 1836 provides for sequestration as a remedy against any corporation not being a county, township, or other public corporate body.
The Act of April 7th 1870, Purd. Dig. 291, pl. 52, changes the remedy against the latter class of corporations, and provides for sales, as in other cases. The only exception to the provisions of the Act of 1870 is that class of public corporations subject to writs of mandamus. If the plaintiffs had furnished their materials directly to the corporation before the Act of 1870, would they not have had a remedy by sequestration? If they obtained judgment after the Act of 1870, could they not have issued a writ of fieri facias? If they could not, the corporation could contract debts and utterly refuse to pay them, because there would be no legal method of enforcing the claim.
If the corporation could be sued, judgment obtained and execution could issue on a contract, then a mechanic's lien will bind the buildings of the corporation, under the reasoning in Foster v. Fowler, 10 P. F. Smith 27, "that where there can be no execution there can be no action;" and in Church v. Allison, 10 Barr 417, that if mandamus was not the specified remedy against a county, the word "building" in the mechanics' lien law would embrace the court-house.
John W. & A. Donnan, for defendants in error.—The buildings of the defendant corporation are exempt from levy and execution on grounds of public policy: Wilson v. The Commissioners, 7 W. & S. 197; Williams v. The Controller, 6 Harris 275.
If a court-house or school-house is exempt from lien on grounds of public convenience and necessity, much more then should the buildings of this corporation be exempt. In the protection of the one only a small part of the public are interested, but in the other the whole Western District of Pennsylvania has a direct interest. There are at this time under the care of the Pennsylvania Reform School over three hundred children, committed to its custody by courts and justices of the peace, and to sustain this lien this court must be ready to say that the property and buildings in which they are now confined may be sold at sheriff's sale, and, as a necessary consequence, that a purchaser can, by usual...
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