Beattie v. Allegheny County

OPINION

Justice SAYLOR.

This appeal raises the question of whether taxpayers may bypass administrative remedies and maintain an equitable class action in the trial court to assert a Uniformity Clause-based challenge to the real estate assessment system used by Allegheny County.

I

Appellants filed a class-action equitable complaint in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, alleging that their properties had been over-assessed by the County, and stating more generally that the County’s assessment system caused approximately 80,000 lower-valued homes to be over-assessed and resulted in an…