Board of Supervisors v. Rechenmacher

232 P.2d 514, 105 Cal. App. 2d 39, 1951 Cal. App. LEXIS 1421
California Court of Appeal·Decided June 23, 1951·No. Civ. 8058·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinion

VAN DYKE, J.

Petitioners ask that a writ of mandate be issued, directing the respondent, the County Clerk of the County of Placer, to sign as such official, bonds of the *40 Auburn Joint Union Elementary School District of Placer County and El Dorado County. It appears from an agreed statement of facts that proceedings have been carried through intended to authorize the issuance and sale of these bonds, but it is claimed by respondent that certain matters occurring during the proceedings have resulted in the invalidity thereof to the extent that the bonds, if issued, would be void. The school district is partly in Placer and partly in El Dorado. Ninety-five per cent is in Placer County. The board of trustees of the district (hereafter called “the trustees”) on November 20, 1950, ordered the calling of an election to be held in the1 district on December 19th following, for the purpose of submitting to the electors thereof the question whether bonds of said district should be issued and sold in the total amount of $210,000. Notice of the election was published in the Auburn Journal, a newspaper printed and published in Placer County. The election was held and resulted in there being cast a total of 895 votes, of which 674 were in favor of issuing the bonds, 212 were against and 9 were cast in blank. More than the necessary two thirds having voted for the issuance of the bonds, the respective boards of supervisors of the two counties adopted orders for the issuance of the bonds.

It appears that there were certain contradictions relative to the total of the bonds proposed to be issued and the schedule of maturities thereof, which developed during the proceedings. As required by the statutes, the trustees fixed the table of maturities so that, disregarding maturities not material here, bonds numbered 131 to 150 would mature in 1963, those numbered 151 to 180 in 1964 and those numbered 181 to 210 in 1965. The published notice of election, while stating that the total bonded debt was to be the sum of $210,000, contained a schedule of maturities differing from that set up by the trustees in these particulars: Bonds numbered 131 to 155 would mature in 1963, those numbered 156 to 185 would mature in 1964 and those numbered 186 to 215 in 1965. No bonds numbered above 210 were provided for in the trustees’ order. The total amount of bonds included in the published notice was $5,000 in excess of what the order called for. The notices which were posted were correct and did not contain the error in the published notice. It is stipulated that a great deal of publicity was given to the bond election and a high percentage of votes was cast and there is no indication that there was ever any doubt in fact as to the total amount of bonds which it was proposed to issue. Thus in the issue of the Au *41 burn Journal of November 21st, the first issue in which the notice was published, the matter of a bond election was featured in a news story on the front page, the heading in bold type reading: “$210,000 School Bond Election December 19.” And, as we have noted, although the maturity schedule as published listed five too many bonds, so that an elector, adding them, would see that they totaled $5,000 more than $210,000, yet in the forepart of the same notice, in stating the first proposition to appear on the ballot, it was said that it would be whether or not the district would incur a bonded indebtedness in the sum of $210,000. The erroneous table of maturities appeared in the closing part of the notice. This part of the notice first repeated the statement that the bonds ■ proposed to be issued would be $210,000 in aggregate principal amount, which was correct, and then proceeded to set up the erroneous table of maturities which would, in principal amount, aggregate $215,000.

After the election returns were canvassed, the board of supervisors of each of the two counties passed a resolution providing for the issuance of $210,000 worth of bonds. The resolutions provided for the form of the bonds in accordance with the statute. The boards did not fall into the same error which had appeared in the published notice as to the total of bonds to be issued, but nevertheless the schedule of maturities does differ from that contained in the order of the trustees. Where.the latter’s order called for 20 bonds numbered 131 to 150 to mature May 1, 1963, the boards’ schedule of maturities called for 25 bonds numbered 131 to 155 to mature on that date. Where the trustees’ order called for 30 bonds numbered 151 to 180 to mature May 1,1964, the boards’ orders called for 30 bonds numbered 156 to 185 to mature on that date, and where the order of the trustees called for 30 bonds numbered 181 to 210 to mature May 1, 1965, the boards’ orders called for 25 bonds numbered 186 to 210 to mature on that date. The boards’ orders did not order issuance of any bonds numbered above 210. The boards’ orders differed from the trustees’ order and from the posted notice only in advancing the maturities of five bonds from 1965 to 1963.

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Board of Supervisors v. Rechenmacher, 232 P.2d 514, 105 Cal. App. 2d 39, 1951 Cal. App. LEXIS 1421 (Cal. Ct. App. 1951).

232 P.2d 514 (Board of Supervisors v. Rechenmacher) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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