Opinion
Argued April 20, 1950.
May 22, 1950.
Constitutional law — Statute incomplete and inconsistent — Judicial enforcement — Due process of law — Impairment of contracts — Mortgages — Ground rents — Liens — Payment — Presumption — Lapse of time — Act of May 23, 1949, P. L. 1692.
1. The Act of May 23, 1949, P. L. 1692, is so incomplete, conflicting and inconsistent in its various provisions and so unsusceptible of rational interpretation as a whole as to be incapable of judicial enforcement. [578]
2. The Act of 1949 violates both the Federal and State Constitutions by attempting deprivations of private property without due process of law and by impairing the obligations of valid and subsisting contracts. [578]
Before DREW, C. J., STERN, STEARNE, JONES and BELL, JJ.
Appeals, Nos. 203 and 204, Jan. T., 1950, from decrees of Court of Common Pleas Nos. 5 and 2 of Philadelphia County, Dec. T., 1949, Nos. 2340 and 2341, respectively, in cases of Girard Trust Company, Trustees, etc., v. The Pennsylvania Railroad Company and The Pennsylvania Company for Banking and Trusts, Trustee, etc., v. The Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad Company. Decrees affirmed.
Proceedings to preserve liens of mortgage and ground rent, respectively, under the Act of May 23, 1949, P. L. 1692.
Preliminary objections of defendants sustained and final decrees entered dismissing complaints, before SMITH, P. J., and FENERTY, J., opinion by SMITH, P. J. Plaintiffs appealed.
Boyd Lee Spahr, with him Knox Henderson and Ballard, Spahr, Andrews Ingersoll, for appellants.
Charles Myers, with him Robert M. Landis and Barnes, Dechert, Price, Myers Clark, for appellees.
Thomas P. Mikell, with him Edward M. David, Maurice Bower Saul and Saul, Ewing, Remick Saul, for Corporate Fiduciaries Association of Philadelphia, amicus curiae.
Harry F. Stambaugh, Special Deputy Attorney General, with him T. McKeen Chidsey, Attorney General, for Commonwealth.
The Act of May 23, 1949, P. L. 1692, is so incomplete, conflicting and inconsistent in its various provisions and so unsusceptible of rational interpretation as a whole as to be incapable of judicial enforcement: cf. Willcox v. Penn Mutual Life Insurance Co., 357 Pa. 581, 601, 55 A.2d 521. In addition thereto, the Act offends against both the Federal and State Constitutions by attempting deprivations of private property without due process of law and by impairing the obligations of valid and subsisting contracts. The Act is therefore void as well as inoperative. Nothing more need be said in justification of these conclusions than is contained in the able opinion of President Judge SMITH for the court below.
The several decrees are separately affirmed; each party to pay its own costs.