Wheatley v. Superior Court

279 P. 989, 207 Cal. 722, 1929 Cal. LEXIS 556
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 31, 1929
DocketDocket No. S.F. 13281.
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 279 P. 989 (Wheatley v. Superior Court) 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
Wheatley v. Superior Court, 279 P. 989, 207 Cal. 722, 1929 Cal. LEXIS 556 (Cal. 1929).

Opinion

LANGDON, J.

This matter comes to us upon a petition for a writ of review to determine the legality of the findings and judgment and other proceedings leading up to the formation of the proposed Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District, which matter has been determined by the defendant Superior Court contrary to the contentions of petitioner.

Petitioner is a resident, freeholder, taxpayer and elector of the county of Napa, California, and as such filed a protest against the formation of the proposed Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District and the inclusion of his lands within said district.

The proceedings under attack here were had under the authority of an act of the legislature passed in 1923 and entitled: “An Act to provide for the incorporation and organization and management of bridge and highway districts and to provide for the acquisition and construction by said districts of bridges and approaches thereto, and for the acquisition of all property necessary therefor, and also to provide for the issuance and payment of bonds by said districts, for the levying of taxes and the collection of tolls by said districts and for the annexation of additional territory thereto.” (Stats. 1923, p. 452.)

In 1925 said act was amended so as to provide for the acquisition and construction of highways by the corporation to be formed under the act and in other particulars hereinafter mentioned. (Stats. 1925, p. 714.)

After the passage of the act of 1923, the proceedings herein discussed were instituted in an attempt to form a bridge and highway district. A voluntary organization sent a written application to the boards of supervisors of the counties of Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino, Lake, Napa, Sonoma, Marin and the city and county of San Francisco, to pass a uniform ordinance, therewith submitted. The uniform ordinance provided that the county therein named desired to join with the others above mentioned in forming a bridge and highway district to embrace contiguous territory under .the provisions of chapter 228, page 452, of the Statutes of *724 1923; it directed that a petition be circulated in the county in accordance with the provisions of said act and that the ordinance should be published in a manner prescribed. This uniform ordinance was passed by six only of the counties mentioned, to wit: Sonoma, Mendocino, Marin, Napa, Del Norte and the city and county of San Francisco. Petitionto the Secretary of State were circulated accordingly and signed by ten per centum of the number of qualified electors of each county from which the petitions were presented who voted for Governor of the state at the last general election. The counties of Humboldt and Lake refused to act upon the application and no such ordinance was passed by them nor petition circulated. After the passage of these ordinances and the signing of the petitions the legislature amended the act governing the formation of bridge and highway districts at its session in 1925 in the particular hereinbefore stated and in other particulars with reference to the representation allowed to the various counties forming the district, and also with reference to the necessity for the district being formed from contiguous territory and in some other particulars not important to be mentioned here.

Subsequently the Secretary of State published a notice in each of the six counties fixing a time within which the protests would be received and filed by the owners of property within the proposed bridge and highway district.

Petitioner herein objects to the sufficiency of this notice, contending that .it violates the petitioner’s constitutional rights in that it does not appear therein nor can it be ascertained from said notice what project or improvement is contemplated by reason of the formation of said proposed bridge and highway districts; that said notice fails to state what bridge or bridges are to be acquired or constructed, or where said bridge or bridges and the approaches thereto are to be constructed, and that it fails to give notice of what highway or highways are to be constructed and that there is nothing in said notice to enable petitioner and other taxpayers to determine whether their property will be benefited by the formation of said district or to determine whether said district should be formed.

The question of notice to taxpayers in this proceeding was considered by this court in the case of Doyle v. Jordan, 200 Cal. 170 [252 Pac. 577], and it was therein stated that noth *725 ing in the act under consideration provides that the project for which it is proposed to form the district shall be set forth in any particular or specified manner or shall be described or contained in any particular or specified document or instrument which may form a part of the proceedings taken for the incorporation of the district, and that the act merely provides that the project for which the district is formed should be definitely designated somewhere in the proceedings in order, at least, that the board of directors of the - district might know the extent and the limits to which they -might proceed after the organization of said district. The steps taken in the formation of the district are then discussed in Doyle v. Jordan, supra, and it is concluded that they meet the requirements of the statute. There are no facts presented in the instant proceeding which make the language of Doyle v. Jordan, supra, inapplicable here.

It is next contended that the Superior Court was-without jurisdiction to act since the statute under which the district was sought to be formed violated section 1, articles III and IV, of the constitution of California, in delegating legislative powers to a judicial or administrative officer, in providing that at the time specified in the notice the Superior Court shall have jurisdiction to hear and determine all matters urged by the protestants against the formation of the said proposed bridge and highway district or against the inclusion of their lands therein, and the said Superior Court shall have jurisdiction to exclude the said lands from said proposed districts, etc.

It has been repeatedly held that the functions of an officer or board in inquiring into the inclusion or exclusion of territory within the boundaries of similar districts are purely judicial in their nature. (Imperial Water Co. v. Board of Supervisors, 162 Cal. 14 [120 Pac. 780]; Miller & Lux v. Board of Supervisors, 189 Cal. 254 [208 Pac. 304]; Fallbrook Irr. Dist. v. Bradley, 164 U. S. 112 [41 L. Ed. 369, 17 Sup. Ct. Rep. 56] ; Spring Valley Water Works v. Schottler, 110 U. S. 347, 354 [28 L. Ed. 173, 4 Sup. Ct. Rep. 48].)

The third point raised by petitioner is that any attempt to form a bridge and highway district under the Statute of 1923, as amended in 1925, is a violation of section 10, article I, of the constitution of the United States, *726

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Golden Gate Bridge, Highway & Transportation District v. Superior Court
22 Cal. Rptr. 3d 558 (California Court of Appeal, 2004)
Golden Gate Bridge & Highway District v. Luehring
4 Cal. App. 3d 204 (California Court of Appeal, 1970)
Yribarne v. County of San Bernardino
218 Cal. App. 2d 369 (California Court of Appeal, 1963)
Peart v. Board of Supervisors
301 P.2d 874 (California Court of Appeal, 1956)
Midway School District v. Griffeath
172 P.2d 857 (California Supreme Court, 1946)
Pecos Valley Artesian Conservancy Dist. v. Peters
173 P.2d 490 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1945)
Patterick v. Carbon Water Conservancy Dist.
145 P.2d 503 (Utah Supreme Court, 1944)
Board of Education v. Mulcahy
123 P.2d 114 (California Court of Appeal, 1942)
People Ex Rel. Rogers v. Letford
79 P.2d 274 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1938)
Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Harlan
80 F.2d 660 (Ninth Circuit, 1935)
Lehi City v. Meiling, City Recorder
48 P.2d 530 (Utah Supreme Court, 1935)
Metropolitan Water District v. Superior Court
37 P.2d 1041 (California Supreme Court, 1934)
Garland Co. v. Filmer
1 F. Supp. 8 (N.D. California, 1932)
Golden Gate Bridge & Highway District v. Felt
5 P.2d 585 (California Supreme Court, 1931)
Moore v. Thornburg
284 P. 218 (California Supreme Court, 1930)
Esaisa v. Superior Court of Sonoma County
279 P. 992 (California Supreme Court, 1929)
Dempster v. Superior Ct. of City Cty of San Francisco
279 P. 991 (California Supreme Court, 1929)
Crawford v. Superior Court of Mendocino County
279 P. 992 (California Supreme Court, 1929)
Dempster v. Superior Court
207 Cal. 795 (California Supreme Court, 1929)
Esaisa v. Superior Court
207 Cal. 796 (California Supreme Court, 1929)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
279 P. 989, 207 Cal. 722, 1929 Cal. LEXIS 556, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wheatley-v-superior-court-cal-1929.