Lowenberg v. City of Dallas

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that the duress element was satisfied and noting that “payment was coerced not by the citation but by the Ordinance itself, which made nonpayment criminal”
• holding that payment of city fee implemented through city ordinance and assessed against commercial buildings to generate funds for fire protection services was not voluntary when nonpayment of the fee constituted a Class C misdemeanor
• explaining that fees charged by municipalities can amount to unconstitutional occupation taxes
• determining that a fire safety registration fee was actually a tax
• providing, as a matter of law, that payment of fees based on a municipal ordinance that imposes criminal consequences for failure to pay was not voluntary, and refund was not barred
• owners and operators of commercial buildings sued for unconstitutional taking under federal and state constitution for fire registration fee

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).