In re Organization & of the Bonds of the Central Irrigation District

49 P. 354, 117 Cal. 382, 1897 Cal. LEXIS 671
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedJune 24, 1897
DocketSac. No. 17
StatusPublished
Cited by62 cases

This text of 49 P. 354 (In re Organization & of the Bonds of the Central Irrigation District) 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
In re Organization & of the Bonds of the Central Irrigation District, 49 P. 354, 117 Cal. 382, 1897 Cal. LEXIS 671 (Cal. 1897).

Opinions

Henshaw, J.

This proceeding was instituted by the hoard of directors of the Central Irrigation District, under the provisions of an act of the legislature, commonly and for convenience designated the “Confirmation Act” (Stats. 1889, p. 212).

The petitioners, as the act provides they may do, set forth: 1. The proceedings leading to, and terminating in, the organization of the' irrigation district; and, 2. The proceedings attending the issue and sale of bonds of the district, and asked that these proceedings be reviewed and declared valid and legal.

Certain persons interested in the district, and owning lands therein, appeared, and, by answer, contested the validity of the proceedings for the organization of the district, as well as the proceedings for the issue and sale of bonds. The findings of the court were in favor of the regularity and legality of all these steps and processes, and the judgment of the court followed accordingly. From that judgment, and from the order denying a new trial, disaffected property owners within the district prosecute these appeals.

One of the property owners, L. P. Drexler, appeared, and interposed to the inquiry as to the legality of the organization of the district a separate defense, to the effect that all such inquiry was barred by the provisions of section 3 of the act of March 7, 1887 (Stats. 1887, p. 30), as amended by the act of March 20, 1891 (Stats. 1891, p. 143).

[385]*385If this defense of Drexler is well made, it not only relieves from the necessity of considering appellants’ attack upon the validity of the organization of the district, but, indeed, forbids such consideration. A determination upon this defense then lies at the threshold of the inquiry.

The so-called irrigation act, or Wright act, was approved March 7, 1887. (Stats. 1887, p. 39.) In 1889, the legislature passed an act which, while entitled an act “ supplemental ” to the Wright act, in law forms no part of that statute. It was an act creating a special proceeding for the determination of the questions enumerated in the act itself. It was a special proceeding authorized to be instituted by but a single class of persons, viz., the boards of directors of irrigation districts, whereby these boards of directors, on behalf of their districts, could demand determination of the question, whether the proceedings relative to the organization, as well as the proceedings relating to the proposed or actual issue and sale of bonds, were due and legal.

Under section 5 of this confirmation act, that no question might arise as to its scope or as to the powers of the court in determining the questions which might arise, it is especially provided that the court shall have jurisdiction “to examine and determine the legality and validity of, and approve and confirm each and all of the proceedings for the organization of said district, under the provisions of said act, from and including the petition for the organization of the district, and all other proceedings w'hich may affect the legality or validity of said bonds, and the order for the sale and the sale thereof.” The rules of pleading and practice not inconsistent with the provisions of the act are made applicable to proceedings under it, and appeals are authorized from the judgment and from the order denying a new trial, saving that such appeals must be taken within ten days from the entry of the order or judgment. This confirmation act neither in terms nor in effect amends any of the provisions of the Wright act. It is an independent [386]*386statutory enactment embraced in seven separate and distinct sections, together forming, as the act itself designates it, a special proceeding, having reference, it is true, to the Wright act, but no more amendatory thereof than would be the special proceedings of certiorari or mandamus. It has no bearing upon nor dealings with the matter of the organization of irrigation districts, but provides exceptional and peculiar machinery by which the aid of the courts may be invoked to secure evidence and to determine whether a particular district has been duly organized and its bonds regularly issued. (Tregea v. Modesto Irr. Dist., 164 U. S. 179; Crall v. Poso Irr. Dist., 87 Cal. 140; Rialto Irr. Dist. v. Brandon, 103 Cal. 384.)

In 1891 the legislature passed an act which, by its title and by its terms, purported to, and in fact did, amend the Wright act of 1887. (Stats. 1891, p. 142.) In amending section 3 of the original act there was inserted the following: “And no action shall be commenced or maintained, or defense made affecting the validity of the organization, unless the same shall have been commenced or made within two years after the making and entering of said order.” ■ “Said order” is the order of the board of supervisors entered upon its minutes and declaring the territory duly organized as an irrigation district.

The Central Irrigation District was organized in December, 1887. This proceeding was instituted in 1893.

-Whatever effect the act of 1891 may have to cut off rights of action or defenses which before its enactment were available to objecting land holders within an irrigation district in any action prosecuted by them, or by way of defense to any action prosecuted against them, we are not here called upon to consider; for it is plain that this provision of the act of 1891 was not designed to curtail the rights of boards of directors to seek a determination of the legality of the organization of their districts under the confirmation act, nor to abridge the [387]*387jurisdiction of the court to decide these questions, a jurisdiction expressly and solemnly conferred therein; and it would be the merest stultification to hold that while the directors of an irrigation district might seek and obtain a judgment of a court declaring that their district was legally organized under a proceeding inviting all interested to appear and attack that organization, nevertheless no defense could be made by any one touching upon the legality of the acts and proceedings for organization. Such procedure would partake neither in form nor in essence of the nature of a judicial determination. It would be equivalent to a pretended judicial process commanding a man to come and be heard, and upon his appearance denying him a hearing. The confirmation act treats of a special proceeding; the act of 1861, of an action. The distinction between the two is Avell recognized. “The term ‘special proceeding’ is used in the codes of practice of many of the states in contradistinction to ‘action.’ It may he said, generally, that any proceeding in a court which was not under the common law and equity practice either an action at law or a suit in chancery is a special proceeding.” (1 Ency. of PI. & Pr. 112; Code Civ. Proc., secs. 22, 23.)

Without, therefore, stopping to consider just what meaning is to be attached to the amendatory provision of the statute of 1891, we hold that it has no application to proceedings instituted by boards of directors on behalf of their districts for confirmation of their organi- . zation, and of their bond issues under the act of 1889.

It is next insisted that inquiry upon all questions affecting the validity of the organization of the district is foreclosed by the decision of this court in Central Irr. Dist. v. De Lappe, 79 Cal. 351.

In that case the district brought mandamus against its secretary to compel him to sign and seal certain of its bonds.

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Bluebook (online)
49 P. 354, 117 Cal. 382, 1897 Cal. LEXIS 671, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-organization-of-the-bonds-of-the-central-irrigation-district-cal-1897.