Michael Alberty says his responsibility ends where the sidewalk begins.
Even farther away than that, actually.
Alberty is taking Mt. Lebanon to court over who is responsible for clearing, fixing and maintaining the 50 feet of sidewalk on Gilkeson Road in front of his childhood home, which he still owns.
Mt. Lebanon says that he is.
But Alberty, a lawyer in Washington County, disagrees. Last week he sued in federal court on behalf of himself and, if he gets his way, other homeowners in the South Hills community.
Alberty found what he believes is a technicality in the law that should free him and potentially thousands of other homeowners in Mt. Lebanon from having to maintain the sidewalks. He claims that they have wrongly spent at least $1 million on sidewalk expenses.
The theory of the case, his attorney, Joseph Chivers, said, amounts to this: “It ain’t my property. It ain’t my sidewalk. Why the hell should I pay for the whole thing?”
The case turns on a close reading of the letter of the law.
Under Pennsylvania statute, a municipality has the authority to compel property owners to maintain the sidewalk “where the property owner’s land abuts the roadway,” the lawsuit said.
But in Alberty’s case, when Mt. Lebanon was laid out in 1912, it kept ownership of long parcels of land known informally as a “tree lawn” between public roads and private property, the complaint said.
What that means, according to Alberty’s lawsuit, is that his property does not technically abut the roadway.
Therefore, the complaint said, he shouldn’t have to maintain the sidewalk.
Laura Pace Lilley, a spokeswoman for Mt. Lebanon, said she could not comment on pending litigation. She would not confirm whether the municipality owns the community’s tree lawns.
Alberty, 64, is seeking class-action status for the lawsuit.
It seeks to represent all other similar property owners who have been subject to sidewalk costs since January 2019 and whose sidewalks abut what Alberty believes is Mt. Lebanon’s property.
The lawsuit asserts that over the past five years, more than 1,000 property owners in Mt. Lebanon have incurred sidewalk construction and repair costs exceeding $1 million.
Those costs, Alberty said, are not authorized under the law and equate to an illegal tax. He is suing under the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution and the uniformity clause of the state constitution.
“It’s a taxing problem. It’s a maintenance-of-their-property problem,” he said. “It’s a snow-and-ice-removal problem.”
Alberty said he spent more than four months researching the issue. The language in the statute is clear, he said.
Mt. Lebanon residents must maintain, repair and clear the sidewalks in front of their homes and even build new ones if asked by the municipality — that despite the fact that residents don’t have any greater right to use the sidewalk than any other person, according to the lawsuit.
“The township has the sole discretion to decide when the public sidewalk needs to be constructed, repaired or otherwise maintained,” the complaint said.
The lawsuit alleges that there is no right to challenge the municipality’s judgment as to needed repairs, and homeowners must pay the entire cost — and do so on Mt. Lebanon’s schedule.
If the owner elects to use the township’s contractor, they must pay a 10% penalty, the complaint said. And if the bill is not paid in full, Mt. Lebanon can place a lien on the property.
Alberty noted that if he fails to clear the sidewalk of snow and ice within 24 hours, he is subject to a fine.
Gilkeson used to be a dirt road but is now a heavily traveled, four-lane connecting road. Alberty’s parents bought the house in 1953, and he inherited it about 15 years ago. Although he now uses it as a rental property, he is still responsible for maintaining the sidewalk.
“My family has repaired that sidewalk I don’t know how many times,” he said. “I’ve shoveled it, I can’t say how many times.”
Alberty estimates he has spent thousands in money and time to maintain “somebody else’s property.”
Although Mt. Lebanon has a Home Rule charter that allows it to enact its own ordinances, the lawsuit said, it does not have authority to exceed the limits placed by state statute.
“It’s hard to understand how something so obvious lasted so long,” Alberty said.
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Paula Reed Ward is a TribLive reporter covering federal and Allegheny County courts. She joined the Trib in 2019 after spending nearly 17 years at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where she was part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team. She is the author of “Death by Cyanide.” She can be reached at pward@triblive.com.