80 Cal. 266 | Cal. | 1889
This is a petition for a writ of mandate to compel the treasurer of the police life and health insurance fund of the city and county of San Francisco to pay petitioner, as administrator of Edward A. Ward, deceased, the sum of one thousand dollars.
On April 1, 1878, an act of the legislature was ¿p-proved in relation to the police force of the city and county of San Francisco. It provided (section 2), among other things, that the compensation of police-.officers “shall not exceed” $102 per month, and that the treasurer “ shall retain from the pay of each police-officer the sum of $2 per month, to be paid into a fund to be known as the police life and health insurance fund, which shall be administered as is provided in sections 9 to 13,inclusive, of this act.” These last-named sections provide, generally, that the mayor, auditor, and treasurer of the city and county shall constitute the police life and health insurance board; that such board shall invest the moneys of the fund in certain securities, and that upon the death of a member of the police force there shall be paid to his legal representatives by said treasurer the sum of one thousand dollars.
The said deceased, Edward A. Ward, was a member of said police force at and before the time of the passage of said act of April 1,1878, and continued to be a member of said force until the time of his death, which occurred March 13, 1889.
But before his death there went into effect an act -of the legislature, approved March 4, 1889, entitled “ An
The petitioner makes numerous attacks on the validity of said last-named act, and upon its efficiency to accomplish the purpose for which it was evidently intended. We will notice a few of them.
1. The main contention of petitioner is, that the act is in violation of the provisions of the constitutions' of the United States and of this state, that no person shall be deprived of property without due process of law. This contention goes upon the theory that the deceased had a vested property right in the thousand dollars of
2. It is contended that the said act last named did not repeal the provision of said act of April 1, 1878, under which petitioner claims. It is true that it does not expressly refer to that part of the former act, and repeal it in terms; but it repeals it by necessary implication. “The latter takes place whenever by subsequent legislation it becomes apparent that the legislature did not intend the former act to remain in force.”
The two foregoing points are the main ones presented by petitioner; but his counsel makes one or two other points in his brief, and suggests, or intimates, a number of others, which we have no time to notice here in detail. We will content ourselves with saying that, in our opinion, the title of the said act of March 4,1889, is sufficient; that it does not create a “ special commission ” within the .prohibition of section 13 of article 11 of the state constitution; that it is not violative of the prohibitions in the constitution of granting an “ extra compensation,” etc., to any public officer, or increasing such compensation, or making any gift of public money; and that, so far, at least, as those part of said act which affect the rights of petitioner are involved, we see no legal objection to the validity and efficiency of said act.
The prayer of the petitioner is denied, and the writ dismissed.
Works, J., Thornton, J., and Paterson, J., concurred.