Sewer and Sewage Treatment • Refund Act • Statute of Limitations • Municipality Authorities Act

FP Willow Ridge Assoc's, L.P. v. Allen Twp., PICS Case No. 17-1138 (Pa. Commw. July 6, 2017) Wojcik, J. (16 pages).

Claim for refund of sewage fees was not barred by property owner's failure to comply with statute of notification in Refund Act, but claim failed because such fees were authorized by the Municipality Authorities Act. Summary judgment affirmed.

FP Willow Ridge Associates, L.P., appealed from the trial court's order granting summary judgment in favor of Allen Township and against Willow Ridge, and dismissing Northampton Borough's summary judgment motion as moot. Willow Ridge was the owner of an apartment complex in Allen Township. The township owned and operated a sewage collection and transmission system within the township; the borough owned the plant that treated the township's sewage, pursuant to an Intermunicipal Sewer Service Agreement. Under the agreement, sewage was metered by an equivalent dwelling unit, which represented the volume of water used per quarter by any single-family dwelling. The township set the sewer tapping fee at $3,000, and treated each dwelling unit as one EDU.