Municipal Authority Sewer Construction Assessments Upheld

Rudolph Clarke attorney Lauren Gallagher won a significant victory for the Northampton, Bucks County, Municipal Authority, successfully arguing that an appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court was not justified in a case against the owners of 11 non-residential properties.

Pennsylvania law allows the Authority to recover the costs of construction from properties benefitted by the installation of public sanitary sewers. The landowners argued that the Authority’s settlement agreements with other property owners prevented the Authority from collecting any costs from the landowners. Both the Common Pleas Court and the Commonwealth Court rejected the landowners’ arguments.

On appeal, Lauren successfully argued that the landowners failed to prove that the lower courts had committed any error, and on Jan. 22, 2015, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania denied the landowners’ allowance of an appeal, paving the way for the Authority to recover its costs from the landowners.