Faulkner v. California Toll Bridge Authority

253 P.2d 659, 40 Cal. 2d 317, 1953 Cal. LEXIS 195
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 25, 1953
DocketSac. 6377
StatusPublished
Cited by155 cases

This text of 253 P.2d 659 (Faulkner v. California Toll Bridge Authority) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Faulkner v. California Toll Bridge Authority, 253 P.2d 659, 40 Cal. 2d 317, 1953 Cal. LEXIS 195 (Cal. 1953).

Opinion

SCHAUER, J.

Plaintiffs 1 appeal from a judgment entered on the sustaining without leave to amend of defendants’ 2 *321 general demurrer to plaintiffs' complaint for injunction, mandamus, and general relief. In plaintiffs’ language, "This is an action to restrain the California Toll Bridge Authority and the Department of Public Works from proceeding with the construction and financing of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. . . . The complaint seeks a temporary restraining order and a preliminary and permanent injunction restraining Defendants from proceeding with the proposed construction work and the financing thereof. Also sought are a . . . judgment declaring invalid certain resolutions of Defendants . . . and the acts of Defendants committed pursuant thereto, and a writ of mandate to compel the California Toll Bridge Authority to grant Plaintiffs herein a fair and adequate hearing on the question of whether a bridge or an earth fill type of crossing should be built.” We have concluded that the demurrer was properly sustained and that the judgment should be affirmed.

The complaint, framed in five causes of action, is based upon three theories. So far as here material, allegations common to all causes of action are: On September 23, 1952, defendants held a hearing in Sacramento concerning the proposed construction of a highway toll bridge (hereinafter termed the bridge) between Richmond and San Rafael (i.e., between the county of Contra Costa and the county of Marin), which was continued to September 26, 1952. On the latter date, in Sacramento, defendant California Toll Bridge Authority (hereinafter termed the authority), “adopted a resolution approving the opinion, determination, and recommendation of the Department of Public Works to construct the . . . Bridge, and authorizing the issuance of revenue bonds to obtain funds for construction . . . said Authority also adopted a resolution directing the preparation of a resolution authorizing the issuance of toll bridge revenue bonds and an Official Statement in connection therewith.” On November 7, 1952, the authority adopted the following resolutions: (a) “authorizing the creation of an issue of not exceeding *322 $72,000,000 Richmond-San Rafael Toll Bridge Revenue Bonds and providing for the initial issuance of $62,000,000 principal amount of Series A bonds”; (b) “approving the official statement of the Authority relating to said Series A Bonds”; (e) “authorizing the sale of Series A bonds for the purpose of providing funds for the construction of the Bridge and directing publication of Notice of Sale of” such bonds; (d) “directing the Department of Public Works to call for bids on construction of the substructure and superstructure of said Bridge; . . . and to fix the date for the opening of said bids at not later than December 22, 1952.”

Plaintiffs’ first theory (upon which their first three alleged causes of action are based) is that the authority’s resolutions of September 26 and of November 7, 1952, constituted “regulations” within the meaning of the sections of the California Administrative Procedure Act (hereinafter termed the act) governing “quasi-legislative” action of administrative agencies, and that the authority’s admitted failure to comply with such sections in connection with the resolutions was unlawful.

The act is set forth in chapters 4 and 5 of title 2, division 3, part 1, of the Government Code, and it is upon certain provisions of chapter 4 (i.e., §§ 11370-11445) that plaintiffs rely.

Section 11371 provides, so far as here material, that as used in chapter 4 “ ‘Regulation’ means every rule, regulation, order, or standard of general application . . . adopted by any state agency 3 to implement, interpret, or make specific the law enforced or administered by it, or to govern its procedure, except one which relates only to the internal management of the state agency.” Section 11380 requires that “Every state agency shall: (a) File with the Secretary of State a certified copy of every regulation adopted by it except one which: (1) Establishes or fixes rates, prices or tariffs. (2) Relates to the use of public works, including streets and highways, under the jurisdiction of any state agency when the effect of such order is indicated to the public by means of signs or signals. (3) Is directed to a specifically named person or to a group of persons and does not apply generally throughout the State. ...” Sections 11409 through 11415 provide for publication in the California Administrative Code (and Register) of all regulations re *323 quired to be filed with the Secretary of State, and for sale of copies of such Code and Register. Sections 11420 through 11427 have as their purpose the establishment of “basic minimum procedural requirements for the adoption, amendment or repeal of administrative regulations . . . [which] are applicable to the exercise of any quasi-legislative power conferred by any statute heretofore or hereafter enacted . . except that they do not apply “to any regulation not required to be filed with the Secretary of State. . . .” (§§ 11420, 11421 4 .)

It is plaintiffs’ contention that the authority’s resolutions here involved were “regulations” required to be filed with the Secretary of State under the provisions of section 11380, that adoption by the authority of such resolutions constituted exercise of a “quasi-legislative power,” and that the authority’s failure to comply with section 11380 and with the procedural requirements of sections 11420 through 11427 was therefore unlawful and renders invalid the resolutions and any action taken thereunder.

We are of the view, however, that defendants are correct in their position that the resolutions were not of “general application . . . adopted ... to implement, interpret, or make specific the law enforced or administered by” the authority “or to govern its procedure,” and hence, regardless of how they might be described or identified otherwise, do not fall within the definition (§ 11371) of a regulation which must be filed with the Secretary of State. Rather, they were adopted for particular application to the subject of either approving or disapproving, under the provisions of the California Toll Bridge Authority Act (Sts. & Hy. Code, § 30000 et seq.), the recommendation of the Department of Public Works that the bridge be constructed, and of authorizing the issuance of revenue bonds following approval of such recommendation (Sts. & Hy. Code, § 30200 5 ). Plaintiffs argue that the resolutions are of general application in that the tolls to be collected on the bridge affect the public generally, and that the bonds to be issued may be purchased by anyone in the world. However, inasmuch as the “application” so urged by plaintiffs relates to only one particular bridge, and solely to the specific project described, and as the resolutions (as alleged) do not purport to treat gen *324 erally with, for instance, all bridges or all toll bridges or any open class under the jurisdiction of the authority, we are satisfied that plaintiff’s position in this respect is without merit.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
253 P.2d 659, 40 Cal. 2d 317, 1953 Cal. LEXIS 195, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/faulkner-v-california-toll-bridge-authority-cal-1953.