Waer Bus Co. v. City of Easton

12 Pa. D. & C. 234, 1928 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 248
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Northampton County
DecidedOctober 22, 1928
DocketNo. 7
StatusPublished

This text of 12 Pa. D. & C. 234 (Waer Bus Co. v. City of Easton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Northampton County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Waer Bus Co. v. City of Easton, 12 Pa. D. & C. 234, 1928 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 248 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1928).

Opinion

Stewart, P. J.,

We issued a preliminary injunction restraining the defendants from interfering with the complainants parking their motor-busses on the streets of the City of Easton which are open and used by other vehicles for parking purposes. The defendants filed an answer, and the parties, by writing filed, agreed that the case should be heard on bill and answer as on final hearing. On March 21st last we filed an opinion which passed on an ordinance and certain traffic rules or regulations of the City of Easton, which compelled the complainants to use certain streets of the City of Easton. We held that section 1035 of “The Vehicle Code” of May 11, 1927, P. L. 886, repealed the same. That case is reported in 21 North. Repr. 223, 11 D. & C. 391. It will not be necessary to re-examine the authorities referred to in that opinion. The bill in the present case sets forth that the complainants had been assigned by the City of Easton a terminal on the west side of North Third Street, between Centre Square and Church Street, and that that terminal had been advertised and was well known as the terminal from which people traveling to Martin’s Creek took complainants’ auto-busses, and that the complainants had used it for a period of three years; that the City of [235]*235Easton, on June 5, 1928, adopted an Ordinance, No. 704, the title of which is as follows: “An Ordinance establishing Public Parking Zones for MotorBusses Operating in, through, to and from the City of Easton, providing rules and regulations in relation thereto and penalties for the violation of’the provisions of this Ordinance,” which ordinance was amended by Ordinance No. 711, adopted on Aug. 8, 1928, which amended ordinance is entitled as follows: “An Ordinance Amending Section 2 of Ordinance No. 704, File of City Council of the City of Easton, Pa., adopted June 5, 1928, entitled ‘An Ordinance establishing Public Parking Zones for Motor-Busses operating in, through, to and from the City of Easton, Pa., providing rules and regulations in relation thereto and penalties for the violation of the provisions of this Ordinance.’” Ordinance No. 704, in sections 2 and 3, provided as follows: “Section 2. That portion of the cartway along the sidewalk of North and South Second Street, on the east and west sides of the same from Northampton Street to Pine and to Church Streets, or such portions as may be deemed necessary and so indicated by proper signs erected by order of the Bureau of Police, are hereby designated and set apart as space for the parking of busses. The parking of other vehicles within the spaces so designated for busses is hereby prohibited, except between the hour at night when the last scheduled bus shall have left and one hour previous to the arrival of the first scheduled bus in the morning.

“Section 3. Nothing in this ordinance shall prevent the stopping of busses while actually engaged in the taking up or setting down of passengers or merchandise in parking spaces other than the parking spaces herein designated or authorized, unless otherwise restricted by the rules, regulations, laws or ordinances of the City of Easton and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The establishment of ‘bus’ offices or booths shall not carry with it any right for a parking at such office or booth.”

Ordinance No. 711 amended section 2 as follows: “Section 2. That portion of the cartway along the sidewalk of North and South Second Streets, on the east and west sides of same from Northampton Street to Pine and to Church Streets, or such portions as may be deemed necessary and so indicated by proper signs erected by order of the Bureau of Police, are hereby designated and set apart for the parking of busses, and busses are hereby prohibited from parking on highways of the City of Easton other than at designated places for such parking. The parking of other vehicles within the spaces so designated for busses is hereby prohibited, except between the hour at night when the last scheduled bus shall have left and one hour previous to the arrival of the first scheduled bus in the morning.”

Complainants also aver: “That the City of Easton, by its proper officers, has also set apart and defined the east and west corners of South Third Street and Centre Square, for a distance of about fifty feet on South Third Street, as a parking zone where busses may be parked.” Complainants’ contention is that the City of Easton has no legal authority to prevent complainants from parking their busses on any of the streets of the City of Easton where other vehicles are permitted to be parked. Defendants, in the answer, admit many of the .averments of the bill, but they deny that the complainants ever were assigned a terminal on North Third Street, in the City of Easton, and deny specifically the allegation that the city permitted busses to park on North Third Street. The main question involved in the present case is, Has the city a right to provide by ordinance that busses shall only be parked upon certain portions of a street, and to prohibit the parking of busses on other streets, it being admitted that other vehicles are allowed to park on other streets for [236]*236various periods of time? Complainants relied upon Rule 10 of the rules or regulations adopted under the Ordinance of July 8, 1919. We discussed that ordinance and those regulations in N. J. Interurban Coach Co. et al. v. City of Easton et al., 21 Northamp. Co. Repr. 223, and we held that by “The Vehicle Code” they had no validity. We said in that case that “The Vehicle Code” changed the entire situation, and we repeat that statement. The Code, in section 102 (pp), defines parking as follows: “ ‘Parking.’- — Every vehicle standing or waiting on any highway not actually engaged in taking up or setting down passengers or merchandise.” Section 1033 provides as follows: “Local authorities, except as expressly authorized by this act, shall have no power or authority to alter any speed limitations declared in this act, or to enact or enforce any ordinance, rule or regulation contrary to the provisions of this act, except that local authorities shall have power to provide by ordinance for the regulation of traffic, by means of traffic officers or semaphores or other signaling devices, on any portion of the highway where traffic is heavy or continuous, and may regulate or prohibit parking, or prohibit other than one-way traffic, upon certain highways, and may regulate the use of the highways by processions or assemblages.” That section expressly confers upon municipalities the power to regulate or prohibit parking. Reading that section in connection with the definition quoted, the city may prohibit parking absolutely, or may regulate it by providing that busses may stand in certain designated places for certain periods of time. Section 1035 has a title, “Rights of Operators on Highways.” The section provides: “Operators of motor-vehicles shall have the same right upon the highways as the drivers of other vehicles, and no highway, open to other vehicles, shall be closed to motor-vehicles.” We made an application of that section in N. J. Interurban Coach Co. et al. v. City of Easton et al., but the situation in the present case is not analogous to the situation in that case. To deprive bus owners of the right to use certain streets is to abridge the operation of motor-vehicles. Parking is the exact opposite of operation.

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Bluebook (online)
12 Pa. D. & C. 234, 1928 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 248, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/waer-bus-co-v-city-of-easton-pactcomplnortha-1928.