State Ex Rel. City of Charles Town v. County Commission of Jefferson County

I concur in the result in this case, but write separately to state one qualification to the majority opinion’s conclusion that “[t]he county commission is required to enter the annexation order when the municipality certifies that the annexation petition is sufficient.” Op. at 69.

The thrust of this statement is that the county commission’s duties are wholly and strictly ministerial and are defined by statute. The difficulty with this statement is that it leaves the impression that the county commission must enter an annexation order even when it contains findings that are wrong, and that the…