174 P. 45 | Cal. | 1918
Lead Opinion
This is an appeal from a judgment in defendants' favor in a proceeding wherein the plaintiff seeks to review a certain determination of the city council of the city of Los Angeles taken in the course of proceedings for the annexation of certain territory to said city. The proceedings for annexation were instituted under the provisions of the Statute of 1913 as amended in 1915, [Stats. 1915, p. 305], relating to the annexation of inhabited outside territory to an incorporated city. The act contemplates the following steps in the course of such proceedings: Five electors of the territory to be annexed may file with the city council a notice of their intention to petition for annexation, upon receipt of which the city council may pass a resolution approving the same, and for thirty days thereafter no proceedings shall be taken for annexing the same territory to any other city. Upon receiving such petition, signed by not less than one-fourth in number of the qualified electors residing within said territory, asking for the annexation thereof to the city, the city council must call an election and submit to the electors residing in such territory the question of annexation. If the vote in this territory is favorable, the city council must then call an election and submit the proposition to the electors of the city, and if they also vote in favor of the annexation, the result must be certified to the Secretary of State and the annexation is then complete.
The proceedings in this matter were properly instituted on March 11, 1916, by the filing of the above notice of intention and by its approval by the city council through the passage of the appropriate resolution on March 14, 1916. On March 23, 1916, a petition for annexation, admittedly in proper form and signed by 120 persons, who described themselves therein as being qualified electors of the territory to be annexed and stating their respective places of residence therein, was duly filed with the clerk of the city council, and on March 24, 1916, said petition was presented by said clerk to the council in session. Whereupon, on motion of one of its members, duly seconded, a motion was passed instructing the city clerk, who was also the clerk of that body, "to examine said petition and ascertain whether said petition is signed by one-fourth in number of the qualified electors residing within the territory described in said petition as shown by the registration of voters of Los Angeles County." The clerk made such examination *612 and rendered his report in writing to the city council in the following words:
"I beg to report as follows: In accordance with your instructions, I have carefully examined Petition No. 973 signed by G.A. Baber and others, filed in my office and presented to the council on March 24th, 1916, asking for the annexation to the city of Los Angeles of certain outside territory contiguous to the city on its western boundary, and comprising Westgate and other precincts in Los Angeles county.
"I find and report that said petition is signed by 94 qualified electors residing in the territory described in said petition, and thereby asked to be annexed to the city of Los Angeles, and that said petition is signed by one-fourth (1/4) and more of the qualified electors residing in said territory."
Thereupon the city council adopted a resolution as follows:
"That the council of the city of Los Angeles hereby finds and determines that that certain petition asking for annexation of the territory therein and hereinafter described, to the city of Los Angeles, is signed by 94 qualified electors residing in the territory described in said petition, and that said petition is signed by one-fourth (1/4) and more in number of the qualified electors residing within the territory described in said petition as shown by the registration of voters of Los Angeles county, within which county said territory is situated, and said petition is sufficient.
"Said territory is described as follows . . ."
Here followed the description of the territory sought to be annexed, whereupon the proper ordinance calling a special election and fixing the date thereof was adopted; and the election in accordance therewith was later held and resulted in a vote favoring the annexation of the proposed territory. The petitioner herein directs his attack upon these proceedings at that portion thereof wherein the city council undertook to determine that a petition signed by the requisite number of the qualified electors of the territory seeking annexation which the statute requires had been duly presented.
It is in the first place contended by the petitioner herein that in the determination of that question the city council acted judicially, and hence that their action thereon is the proper subject of review in this proceeding upon the authority of Imperial Water Co. v. Board of Supervisors,
The appellant's next contention is that the city council had no sufficient evidence before them upon which to base a finding that a sufficient petition for the calling of an election had been presented, and hence its action in making such finding and ordering the election based thereon was in excess of its jurisdiction and hence reviewable in this proceeding. In making this contention the petitioner strongly relies upon the case ofStumpf v. Board of Supervisors,
The other points made by petitioner do not merit separate consideration.
Judgment affirmed.
Sloss, J., Wilbur, J., and Melvin, J., concurred.
Concurrence Opinion
I concur.
If we concede purely for the purposes of a decision, as does the opinion, that certiorari will lie in such a case as this (as *616
to which I have great doubt), it is perfectly clear that we are not concerned with any question as to the manner in which the council ascertained the facts upon the existence of which its power to order the election depended. A petition sufficient in form being filed, it was the duty of the council to ascertainin such manner as it found best whether it was sufficiently signed to empower and require it to call the election. If the petition was in fact sufficiently signed, which does not appear to be disputed, the power existed. As said in People v.Ontario,