Pennsylvania Act 1929-137 — FOREST FIRES, COSTS OF COMBATING

Act text

FOREST FIRES, COSTS OF COMBATING
                  Act of Apr. 3, 1929, P.L. 135, No. 137              Cl. 32
                                  AN ACT

     Authorizing the Department of Justice, acting for the Department
        of Forests and Waters, to institute suits on behalf of the
        Commonwealth to recover from persons, associations,
        copartnerships, and corporations, and their officers, agents,
        and employes, causing forest fires, the expenses incurred by
        the Department of Forests and Waters on account of such
        fires.

        Compiler's Note:  Section 302(h) of Act 18 of 1995, which
            created the Department of Conservation and Natural
            Resources and renamed the Department of Environmental
            Resources as the Department of Environmental Protection,
            provided that the Department of Conservation and Natural
            Resources shall exercise the powers and duties conferred
            upon the Department of Forests and Waters by Act 137 of
            1929.
        Section 1.  Be it enacted, &c., That from and after the
     passage of this act, every person causing a forest fire within
     this Commonwealth, directly or by the act of an agent or
     employe, shall be liable to the Commonwealth for all expenses
     incurred by the Department of Forests and Waters on account of
     such fire.
        Section 2.  The Department of Justice, acting for and on
     behalf of the Department of Forests and Waters, may recover the
     expenses incurred by the latter department on account of any
     forest fire, from the person liable for payment of such
     expenses, by instituting, in the name of the Commonwealth, an
     action of assumpsit in any county in which the defendant can be
     served with process, but no such action shall be brought unless
     the person liable for the payment of such expenses has failed to
     pay the same within thirty days after receiving a bill therefor
     from the Department of Forests and Waters.
        All moneys recovered by the Department of Justice in such
     action shall be paid into the General Fund of the State
     Treasury.
        (2 amended May 22, 1933, P.L.942, No.178)
        Section 3.  The term "forest fire," as used in this act, is
     intended to include fires which burn in woods, farmers'
     woodlots, marshes, brush barrens, brush lands, and wild,
     unseated, uncultivated land.
        Section 4.  The term "person," as used in this act, shall
     include individuals, associations, copartnerships, and
     corporations, and their officers, agents, or employes.