Pennsylvania Act 1911-98 — SUPPLEMENTING ACT, SECOND CLASS CITIES

Act text

SUPPLEMENTING ACT, SECOND CLASS CITIES
                  Act of Apr. 29, 1911, P.L. 103, No. 98              Cl. 11
                               A SUPPLEMENT

     To an act entitled "An act creating a Bureau of Health in the
        Department of Public Safety in cities of the second class;
        defining the powers and duties thereof, and of the officers
        thereunder; prescribing rules, regulations, and laws
        respecting the public health, and authorizing and imposing
        fines, penalties, and punishments for violations thereof,"
        approved June twenty-sixth, one thousand eight hundred and
        ninety-five; and to a supplement thereto, approved March
        twenty-fifth, Anno Domini one thousand nine hundred and
        three; providing for the vacation or destruction of buildings
        dangerous to the public health; authorizing and imposing
        fines, penalties, punishments, and remedies for violations of
        this act, and providing method of appeal.

        Section 1.  Be it enacted, &c., That whenever any building,
     or any part thereof, in any city of the second class, previously
     occupied by a person infected with contagious diseases; or which
     by reason of want of repair has become dangerous to life, or is
     unfit for use and dangerous to health because of defects in
     drainage, plumbing, ventilation, or in the construction of the
     same, or because of the existence of a nuisance on the premises;
     and the owner, agent, occupant, or other person who is
     responsible for the said buildings, shall, after due notice
     thereof, refuse or neglect to comply with the requirements of
     the Department of Public Health of such cities, concerning said
     buildings, said department may issue an order requiring all
     persons therein to vacate or cease to use such buildings, or
     part thereof stated in the order, for reasons expressly stated
     therein, as aforesaid. Such buildings, or part thereof, shall be
     vacated within ten days after said order shall have been served
     as hereinafter provided; or, in case the emergency is such as to
     require more immediate action, such building, or part thereof,
     shall in that case be vacated in such shorter time as in said
     order shall be specified; and such building or part thereof,
     shall not be used or occupied thereafter until the said
     department of public health shall become satisfied that the
     danger from said building, or part thereof, has ceased to exist,
     or that said building has been repaired so as to be habitable,
     or the nuisance complained of in the order abated, and the
     department shall have issued its certificate, in writing,
     revoking the said order.
        Section 2.  Whenever any building, or part thereof, in such
     cities, shall, because of age, infection with contagious
     disease, defects in drainage, plumbing or ventilation, the
     existence of a nuisance on the premises, or conditions tending
     to cause sickness among its occupants or among the occupants of
     other property in said city, or constituting a danger to the
     life or health of the occupants of other buildings in its
     vicinity, or because it prevents proper measures from being
     carried into effect for abating any nuisance injurious to health
     or sanitary evils in respect of such other buildings, be unfit
     for occupation or a menace to public health; and when such
     dangers and evils in, or caused by, said building cannot be
     removed by repairs, or in any other way, excepting by the
     destruction of the said building, or any portion of the same,
     the said Department of Public Health may order the same, or any
     part thereof, to be removed. The said order shall specify the
     building, or part thereof, to be removed, the reason or reasons
     therefor, and shall also specify a reasonable time within which
     said work or removal shall be commenced and prosecuted to
     completion.
        Section 3.  Every notice or order herein provided for shall
     be served by posting a copy of the same in a conspicuous place
     on the building referred to in such order, together with
     personal service upon the owner or owners of the said property
     by the prepaid mailing of a copy thereof, on the same day as it
     was posted, to the said owner or owners, if any, whose address
     is known or ascertained by the said Department of Public Health.
     In case such address or addresses cannot be obtained, after
     reasonable diligence, by the said Department of Public Health,
     said notice shall, in addition to posting, be served upon agent,
     or the tenant or tenants, or other responsible occupant of said
     building, if any.
        Section 4.  In case the occupants, agent, or owners, or
     either of them, shall fail or refuse to comply with the terms of
     any such order, as herein provided for, within the time limited
     by such order as herein provided for, the person or persons so
     in default shall be subject to a fine or penalty as provided in
     section forty-two of the act of June twenty-sixth, one thousand
     eight hundred and ninety-five, to which this is a supplement,
     and, in case of default in payment of the fine imposed, may be
     committed to jail or workhouse, or other penal institution, as
     in said section of said act provided; and the provisions of this
     section shall extend to any person or persons who shall occupy,
     or attempt to occupy, such premises contrary to the provisions
     of such order.
        Section 5.  In case the said department shall direct the
     removal of any building, or part thereof, as herein provided,
     and the owner or owners shall fail or refuse to comply with such
     order within the time limited, the said Department of Public
     Health shall remove the same at the expense of the city; and the
     city may recover the amount of such expense by an action at law
     in the court of common pleas of the proper county; and when such
     suit, with statement of claim and description of the premises,
     is filed by the city, the prothonotary shall index it upon the
     judgment docket, and the city shall have a lien for the amount
     of the said claim against the said premises.
        Section 6.  Any person or persons interested who may be
     aggrieved by any order or notice of said Department of Public
     Health, as herein provided, may appeal to any court of common
     pleas of the county in which the property in question is
     situate, if within five days after the posting and service of
     notice, as herein provided for, such person or persons shall
     give notice, in writing, to said department of intention so to
     do, and within five days thereafter shall present a petition to
     such court of common pleas, stating the reasons for resisting
     such order or notice. Upon the presentation of such petition,
     the court may enter an order superseding such order or notice
     pending hearing, providing the petitioner shall file a bond,
     with approved security, in such amount and upon such conditions
     as the court shall deem proper under the circumstances. Upon
     presenting such petition, the petitioner shall also file proof
     of service upon the said Department of Public Health of notice
     of intention to present such petition, and the time when it
     shall be presented, together with a copy of said petition. The
     court shall thereupon proceed summarily to hear and determine
     the said appeal: Provided, however, That if at such hearing the
     petitioner shall demand a trial by jury, and if the order or
     notice of the Department of Public Health in question shall be
     of such a character that its enforcement would affect the rights
     of the petitioner, concerning the determination of which, trial
     by jury is granted by the Constitution of the Commonwealth, the
     court shall direct and issue to be framed to determine such
     matters as may be within the right of a trial by jury, and
     advance said case to the head of next trial-list of said court;
     and, pending such trial, the court may enter an order
     superseding any such order or notice of the Department of Public
     Health, upon the petitioner filing a bond, with approved
     security, in such an amount and upon such conditions as to the
     court shall seem proper.