Cases

The United States District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia presents the following certified question:

Recognizing that Article 6, Section 30, of the West Virginia Constitution provides that "[n]o act hereafter passed, shall embrace more than one object, and that shall be expressed in the title," and that an act shall be void as to any object in it which is not so expressed, and also acknowledging the long-standing precedent of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia that "[t]he title of an act should be construed most liberally and comprehensively in order to give validity to all parts of the act," Syl. Pt. 2, Brewer v. City of Point Pleasant, 114 W.Va. 572 (1934), and that "[w]hen the principal object of an act is fairly expressed in its title, other incidental or auxiliary objects which are germane to the principal object may be included in the act without titular specification," id. at Syl. Pt. 3, is the West Virginia Farm Equipment Dealer Contract Act, W.Va. Code § 47-11F-1, et seq. ("the Act"), limited in its scope and application to "dealers" and "suppliers" of "farm equipment," as stated in the Act's title, or do the protections of the Act extend to "dealers" and "suppliers" of "farm, construction, industrial or outdoor power equipment or any combination of the foregoing," as provided in the definition of "dealer," found in the Act at § 47-11F-2?