Woelpper v. City of Philadelphia
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Error to the District Court of Philadelphia. This was an action on the case brought to recover back certain premiums paid in the year 1835, by the plaintiff to the city, for the right to the occupancy of certain market stalls, in the market west of Broad street.
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Error to the District Court of Philadelphia. This was an action on the case brought to recover back certain premiums paid in the year 1835, by the plaintiff to the city, for the right to the occupancy of certain market stalls, in the market west of Broad street. In the year 1835, the city erected a market-house on Market street, between Fifteenth and Sixteenth streets, and afterwards, by ordinance, advertised that the right to occupy the stalls in the said market should be given to such person as, at a prescribed auction, should bid the highest price therefor. At the said auction plaintiff…
1Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered,
by Woodward, J.
— The ordinance under which the stalls in the market-sheds in Market street west of Broad were let to tenants in 1835, was planned to “ prevent any unfair preference among the applicants for said stalls and stands,” and this purpose was accomplished by fixing a minimum price, and, after public notice, renting each stall by public auction to the highest bidder above the minimum price. But the successful bidders were to become only tenants from year to year, at a fixed rent. The ordinance neither expressly nor by implication conferred any…