WSC, Inc. v. City of Jacksonville

Otis H. Turner, Justice.

This case presents a challenge to a Jacksonville city ordinance levying a fee on trash collection businesses within the city. The ordinance provides for a fee or tax equal to ten percent of their “gross receipts per month for services rendered within the city limit.” The chancellor found that the tax, though characterized as a privilege tax, was in fact a franchise fee arising from a contractual relationship between the parties. There was no writing evidencing a contractual relationship between the appellant, WSC, Inc., doing business as Wilkins Sanitation Company, and…