Constitutional law — Statute incomplete and inconsistent — Judicial enforcement — Due process of law — Impairment of contracts — Mortgages — Ground rents — Liens — Payment — Presumption — Lapse of time — Act of May 23, 1949, P. L. 1692.
1. The Act of May 23, 1949, P. L. 1692, is so incomplete, conflicting and inconsistent in its various provisions and so unsusceptible of rational interpretation as a whole as to be incapable of judicial enforcement. [578]
2. The Act of 1949 violates both the Federal and State Constitutions by attempting deprivations of private property without due process of law and by impairing the obligations of valid and subsisting contracts. [578]
OPINION PER CURIAM, May 22, 1950:
The Act of May 23, 1949, P. L. 1692, is so incomplete, conflicting and inconsistent in its various provisions and so unsusceptible of rational interpretation as a whole as to be incapable of judicial enforcement: cf. Willcox v. Penn Mutual Life Insurance Co., 357 Pa. 581, 601, 55 A.2d 521. In addition thereto, the Act offends against both the Federal and State Constitutions by attempting deprivations of private property without due process of law and by impairing the obligations of valid and subsisting contracts. The Act is therefore void as well as inoperative. Nothing more need be said in justification of these conclusions than is contained in the able opinion of President Judge SMITH for the court below.
The several decrees are separately affirmed; each party to pay its own costs.