74 P. 24 | Cal. | 1903
This is an action to recover the amount of certain so-called "installment coupons," attached to certain bonds of defendant, a corporation organized under the commonly called Wright Act (Stats. 1887, p. 29). The trial court gave judgment for defendant upon the ground that the bonds to which these coupons were attached were disposed of "in a manner and for a purpose unauthorized by law, and that said bonds are, and each of them is, absolutely void." Plaintiff appeals from the judgment and from the order denying his motion for a new trial. The bonds in question are numbered 192, 623, and 656, and are part of a series aggregating $442,000, signed and ready for issue January 1, 1891.
Bond No. 192 was one of a large number delivered to the Bear Valley Irrigation District under a certain contract in exchange for certain so-called class B acre water-right certificates, under circumstances similar to a like exchange in the case ofStimson v. Alessandro Irrigation Dist.,
Section 36 of the act provides that "No claim shall be paid by the treasurer until allowed by the board, and only upon a warrant signed by the president and countersigned by the secretary." These claims may be for salaries and other expenses *543
mentioned in section 37, which are to be paid only by tolls and charges or by levies of assessments, or they may be for "the cost and expense of purchasing and acquiring property and constructing the works and improvements herein provided for," which "shall be wholly paid out of the construction fund." (Sec. 37.) The only express authority given to use bonds in payment for any purpose is in the case of the purchase of property necessary for the works. (Sec. 12.) The construction fund consists of the proceeds of bonds sold under the provisions of the act, and no warrant can be legally drawn upon this fund except for the purposes enumerated in the act. There is no express authority anywhere in the act for exchanging bonds for construction work, or for exchanging bonds for warrants issued for construction work, drawn upon the construction fund, or for delivering bonds in payment of salaries and other expenses mentioned in that connection in section 37, or for warrants issued therefor. The board of directors has only such powers as are expressly given or implied as necessary to carry out the main purpose of the act. (Stimsonv. Alessandro Irrigation Dist.,
Upon the authority of Hughson v. Crane,
Smith, C., and Gray, C., concurred.
For the reasons given in the foregoing opinion the judgment and order appealed from are affirmed.
Shaw, J., Angellotti, J., Van Dyke, J.