City of Fairmont v. Pitrolo Pontiac-Cadillac Co.

MILLER, Justice:

The issues in this certified case arose when the City of Fairmont filed suit against Pitrolo Pontiac-Cadillac and Acme Land Company to collect delinquent fire service fees. The defendants sought to defeat the collection by claiming that the City fire service charge was an ad valorem tax and violated the provisions of Section 1 of Article X of the Constitution of West Virginia. While this case was pending in the circuit court, we issued our opinion in Hare v. City of Wheeling, 171 W.Va. 284, 298 S.E.2d 820 (1982), where we said in its single Syllabus:

“Where certain ordinances…