201 P. 788 | Cal. | 1921
The petitioner has filed an application for a writ ofcertiorari to review the action of the defendant Engram, as city clerk of the city of Redding, in determining that a certain petition filed in the office of said clerk for the recall of certain of the city trustees of said city is sufficient to authorize a recall election, as provided in section I of the act of January 2, 1912, providing for the recall of elective officers of incorporated cities and towns. (Stats. (Ex. Sess.) 1911, p. 128.)
[1] We are satisfied that the action required of the clerk by that act is not judicial in character and that, consequently,certiorari will not lie to review his decision. The act provides that after the recall petition has been filed in his office "within ten days from the date of filing such petition, the clerk shall examine and from the records of registration ascertain whether or not said petition is signed by the requisite number of qualified voters, and he shall attach to said petition his certificate showing the result of said examination." It is this action which is claimed to be judicial and to be, therefore, subject to review. We think all that is required of the clerk to accomplish this duty is to use his *660 eyesight and capacity for counting to determine whether the names on the petition which also appear on the record of registration constitute enough persons to authorize the recall under the statute, that is, whether or not they number twenty-five per cent of the entire vote cast in such city at the last preceding regular municipal election at which the officers to be recalled were voted for. The record of registration will be sufficient for his information upon the question whether or not the persons signing the petition are qualified voters. The law does not require him to go outside for information, but he must determine "from the records of registration" whether or not the fact exists. Such an examination involves merely ministerial acts and is in no sense judicial.
If it should happen that names were forged to the petition in sufficient number to reduce the lawful signatures to the petition below the statutory requirement, persons legally interested perhaps might have a remedy, the nature and character of which we need not here decide. It is enough for the disposition of this application to say that the action of the clerk is not judicial, and hence certiorari is not the proper remedy.
The petitioner relies upon Baines v. Zemansky,
The application for the writ is denied.
All the Justices concurred, except Angellotti, C. J., who was absent.