Williams v. Controllers
| Decision Date | 12 April 1852 |
| Citation | 18 Pa. 275 |
| Parties | Williams <I>versus</I> Controllers. |
| Court | Pennsylvania Supreme Court |
Clayton, for the plaintiffs in error.—In the case of Wilson v. Commissioners of Huntingdon county, 7 Watts 197, it was held that there could not be a recovery against a county on a mechanic's lien for materials furnished for the erection of a court house. This was on the ground that the 6th section of the Act of 15th April, 1834, restricted the remedy in such a case to a proceeding by mandamus; but that the present is not a proceeding against the county of Philadelphia. The controllers are a separate and distinct corporation, as appears from the Act of 16th April, 1845, incorporating the defendants: Acts of Assembly of 1845, p. 502. The Act makes them a body politic and corporate, with capacity to sue and be sued, and to hold real estate, &c. By the Act of 23d January, 1821, the controllers are to report to the county commissioners annually the amount required for public schools; the commissioners are to ascertain and fix the per centum amount of county tax which will produce the sum required, and give notice to the treasurer, who is to keep a separate account for the controllers; and as the taxes are paid in, he is to pass to the credit of the controllers the amount according to the rate per cent. fixed, which shall be subject to orders drawn on the treasurer by the controllers. The county commissioners have nothing to do with the funds of this corporation, and no mandamus could issue to them in such a case as this, and none to the treasurer, because he is required to pay only on the orders of the controllers.
G. M. Wharton, and Emlen, for defendants.—The case of Wilson v. The Commissioners of Huntingdon county, 7 W. & Ser. 197, was decided on the ground that the county buildings are held in trust for the use of the people of the county. The controllers of the first school district were incorporated by Act of 16th April, 1845. Before the passage of this Act the title to real estate held for public school purposes was vested in the commissioners, or in the county of Philadelphia, for the use of the controllers of the public schools. Such real estate, by the 6th section of the Act, became vested in the corporation created by the Act. The funds for buying lots and building school-houses was raised partly by taxation from the citizens of the city and county, and partly from the state, and the property is used for the purposes of public school education. By the Act of 10th April,...
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