Declaratory Judgments in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania was among the first states to enact in 1923 the Uniform Declaratory Judgements Act. Under it nearly two hundred reported cases, embracing some of the most illuminating opinions in the country and unfortunately, also some of the least defensible, have been decided in the various courts of Pennsylvania. It is a little regrettable that the better decisions seem to have been the earlier ones, whereas some of the latter decisions mark a retrogression

THE DECLARATORY JUDGMENT AS AN EXCLUSIVE OR ALTERNATIVE REMEDY

In a recent Michigan case the seller of a boiler, claiming a chattel mortgage therein for the unpaid purchase price, brought an action against the person who had bought the boiler at a bankruptcy sale of the property of the original buyer for a declaration that the plaintiff had the right to possession, or in the alternative, that the defendant was under a duty to pay the balance of the original purchase price. The defendant claimed to be the owner free of the mortgage. A majority of the Michigan Supreme Court, on its own motion, for the propriety of the proceeding was not questioned by the parties, dismissed without prejudice a judgment of the lower court in the plaintiff\u27s favor on the ground that the proper action is replevin. The proceeding for declaratory judgment is not a substitute nor alternative for the common law actions