Pennsylvania Act 1905-115 — COUNTY LINES, LOCATING AND CHANGING

Act text

COUNTY LINES, LOCATING AND CHANGING
                 Act of Apr. 14, 1905, P.L. 157, No. 115              Cl. 16
                                  AN ACT

     To provide for the running, relocating, changing, fixing, and
        marking of county lines.

        Compiler's Note:  Section 1051 of Act 447 of 1929 provided
            that Act 115 is repealed except insofar as it relates to
            counties of the first class.
        Section 1.  Be it enacted, &c., That when it shall appear to
     the satisfaction of the courts of quarter sessions of two
     adjoining counties that the county line between such counties,
     or any part thereof, should be surveyed and marked, a commission
     of three surveyors to designate, survey, and mark the same shall
     be appointed as follows.
        (1 amended Jun. 9, 1911, P.L.755, No.318)
        Section 2.  The respective courts of quarter sessions of such
     counties shall each appoint one surveyor, and the two surveyors
     so appointed shall appoint one surveyor. If any of the said
     surveyors so appointed shall refuse to serve, remove from the
     State, die, resign, or shall be or become incapacitated, and
     unable from any cause to perform the duties required, the
     appointment of substitutes shall be made in conformity with the
     provisions of this section for the original appointment of such
     surveyor so dying, resigning, or becoming incapacitated.
        (2 amended Jun. 9, 1911, P.L.755, No.318)
        Section 3.  The members of such commission shall take and
     subscribe an oath to perform their duties impartially and with
     fidelity.
        Section 4.  Such commission shall meet and organize within
     two months of the date of its appointment. It shall select from
     its membership a presiding officer, and also a secretary, who
     shall keep a full record of the proceedings and work of the
     commission. Before entering upon its duties it shall appoint, by
     advertisement in one or more newspapers published in each of
     said counties, a time and place of meeting, when and where
     parties interested in the location of such party line will be
     heard; after which hearing it shall, without unreasonable delay,
     carefully ascertain the location, and survey, and mark with
     suitable marks of a permanent character, the old county line
     between such counties, if it shall consider such old county line
     a proper one.
        Section 5.  When the said commission shall have ascertained,
     located and determined the said line, if it shall appear to them
     that the said county line, from any cause whatever, shall have
     become inconvenient for any purpose, or improper, difficult to
     ascertain, or not related to the natural or other land marks,
     the said commission shall report these facts, or any of them, to
     the said courts of quarter sessions of the counties interested,
     with a recommendation that a new county line shall be
     established, in whole or in part; and thereupon, and also where
     any commission heretofore appointed under existing laws shall
     make, or shall have made, such recommendation, if the said
     courts of quarter sessions shall be of opinion that it is to the
     interest and advantage of the respective counties that a new
     county line shall be established, they are hereby authorized to
     direct said commission to fix and determine such new county
     line; notice being given to the owners of land which will be
     affected by the proposed change, before said line shall be so
     fixed and determined.
        Section 6.  The said commission, or a majority thereof, shall
     make a report, in writing, and attach thereto a map or draft
     showing the courses and distances of the line so ascertained and
     designated by them as the old county line between the said
     counties; or, where they shall have recommended a new county
     line, such map or draft, in lieu thereof, shall show the courses
     and distances of the line so recommended as a proper county
     line; and, in either case, said map or draft shall also show the
     land through which said line passes, and the buildings in close
     proximity thereto, together with the roads and streams crossed
     by or near to such line; and copies of such report and map,
     signed by the members of the commission or a majority of them,
     shall be filed in the court of quarter sessions of each of such
     counties, and, if approved by such courts, shall be ordered
     recorded in the records thereof; and the line so ascertained,
     surveyed or recommended, and so marked, shall thenceforth be the
     boundary line between such counties.
        Section 7.  The surveyors composing such commission shall
     each receive a compensation of five dollars per day, for all
     time necessarily spent in the discharge of their duties, and in
     addition thereto shall be reimbursed the necessary expenses paid
     by them, respectively, while engaged upon, and in the
     furtherance of, the work of such commission. The commission may
     employ, as assistants, an axeman and two chain-carriers, at a
     compensation of two dollars a day each, who shall likewise be
     reimbursed the actual necessary expenses paid by them,
     respectively, while employed by such commission: Provided, That
     the necessary expenses incurred and paid by such commissioners
     in advertising their meeting, pursuant to the direction of this
     act, and in procuring and setting the monuments, needful to mark
     in a permanent manner such county line, shall be allowed and
     paid to the commission incurring such expense, in addition to
     the expenses for which they shall be severally reimbursed, as
     hereinbefore provided.
        Section 8.  The expenses of the commission shall be paid by
     such counties jointly, in equal parts, upon presentation of
     properly itemized bills, duly verified by affidavit of the
     person claiming payment, or some one on his behalf.