19 Wash. 383 | Wash. | 1898
The opinion of the court was delivered by
Mandamus proceedings were commenced against the board of county commissioners of Kittitas county, Washington, to compel the levy of a tax by said commissioners to pay the interest upon certain alleged bonds of the middle Kittitas irrigation district, the same being a district alleged to have been organized under the act of the legislature of the state of Washington entitled “An Act providing for the organization and government of irrigating districts and the sale of bonds arising there
“ That thereafter and prior to the sale and delivery of said bonds as hereinafter found, the board of directors of said irrigation district commenced a proceeding in the superior court of Kittitas County, state of Washington, praying that the proceedings for the organization of said district and all proceedings and elections providing for and authorizing the issue and sale of the bonds aforesaid might be examined, approved and confirmed by said court; and such proceedings were thereafter had in said cause that on the-day of October, 1897, the superior court of said Kittitas County, entered an order and judgment in all matters and things approving and confirming the legality and validity of said bonds, and each and all of the proceedings for the issuance of said bonds from and including the petition for the organization of the district down, and to the order for the sale of said bonds, which said judgment now stands and has not been in any manner reversed.”
High on Extraordinary Legal [Remedies (2d ed.), § 440, lays down the rule as follows:
“ As regards the joinder of parties respondent in writs of mandamus, the first general principle to be observed is, that the writ should run to the person or body whose duty it is to perform the act required. It will not, therefore, lie to one person to command another to do the required act. Hor is it the practice to make any other persons parties respondent than the officer whose conduct is complained of.”
The same rule is announced on page 219 of 14 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law, and the cases cited fully sustain the announcement. La this case, under the statute of 1890 it was the duty of the county commissioners, the directors of the district not having acted in accordance with the law, to make this assessment. It being their duty to perform this act, the writ of mandamus was the proper remedy to compel them to do so. In addition to the general propositions of law as sustained by the authorities, our code specially authorizes this procedure in a case of this kind. Section 5755, Bal. Code (Laws 1895, p. 117, § 16) provides that a writ of mandamus may be issued by any court, except a justice’s or a police court, to any inferior tribunal, corporation, board or person, to compel the performance of an act which the law especially enjoins as a duty resulting from an office, trust or station. As we have seen, it was the duty of the county commissioners, upon the omission of the directors of the irrigation company, to make the assessment.
We see nothing to .convince us that the law in this case is unconstitutional and have not been able to find any errors that were committed by the trial court. The judgment will therefore be affirmed.
Scott, C. J., and Reavis, Gordon and Anders, ,TJ., •concur.