83 P. 246 | Cal. | 1905
This is an original application to this court for a writ of mandate growing out of the following facts: The Los Angeles City School District of Los Angeles County comprises for its territory the city of Los Angeles and certain contiguous outlying lands. Its governing body is the board of trustees of Los Angeles City School District of Los Angeles County, whose members are the same as those of the board of education of the city of Los Angeles. This board of trustees, in compliance with the provisions of section 1880 et seq. of the Political Code, initiated proceedings for the issuance of bonds of the school district, which proceedings were regularly carried to the point where the board of trustees certified to the board of supervisors of the county its action in the premises, as provided by section 1884 of the Political Code. The board of supervisors has refused to issue the bonds, as required by section 1884, upon the ground that the city of Los Angeles, as a municipal corporation, has, under its charter and the laws of the state, the sole and exclusive right to issue bonds for the purpose specified. This is the only issue presented by this controversy. It has been repeatedly decided that a school district is a corporation of quasi-municipal character, and, though its territorial limits *382
may be actually coterminous with those of a city, the identity of the school district as a corporate entity is not lost nor merged in that of the city. (Estate of Bulmer,
That school districts may in proper cases issue bonds is of course not disputed. It remains to be considered whether this general power to issue bonds which has been granted to school districts has been taken away from this particular school district by force of the charter of the city of Los Angeles. Upon this proposition the contention of respondent is that all matters touching schools within the corporate limits of a city are "municipal affairs," and that as, under the provisions of section 6 of article XI of the constitution, the charter of a city is supreme in municipal affairs, the charter of Los Angeles thus becomes the sole guide, authority, and power for the issuance of school bonds; that the charter of Los Angeles denies the power to its board of education to take the initiatory steps towards the issuance of school bonds, and confers that power upon its city council; and that its city council, under the provisions of section 78 of the charter, draws its power from the provisions of the General Improvement Act of 1901. Herein reliance is placed upon the language of this court in the case of Law v. SanFrancisco,
Moreover, it should be finally emphasized that the power of *384
a municipality in this regard can only run current with, and never counter to, the general laws of the state touching the common-school system. To such general laws, if conflict arises, all municipal charters must be subservient. (Const., art. IX, sec. 5, and art. IV, sec. 25, subd. 27.) In the case of In reWetmore,
It follows from the foregoing that while the city of Los Angeles in a proper case would have the power to issue its municipal bonds for the erection of new schoolhouses and the improvement of existing ones, for the acquisition of land for these purposes, and the like, the school district, petitioner herein, has also its separate and independent power to do the same thing, and that the bonds so issued are not municipal bonds of the city of Los Angeles, but are the bonds of the school district proper, and the writ of mandate should issue accordingly.
Let the mandate issue as prayed for.
McFarland, J., Angellotti, J., Van Dyke, J., and Lorigan, J., concurred.