Silver v. City of Los Angeles

McCOMB, J.

Defendants appeal from a judgment in favor of plaintiff after trial before the court in an action brought by plaintiff as a taxpayer to have declared void, and to set aside, an oil and gas lease between defendant City of Los Angeles, as lessor, and defendant Los Angeles Harbor Oil Development Co., as lessee, covering approximately 6,400 acres of submerged lands in the Los Angeles Outer Harbor.

This is the sole question necessary for us to determine:

May a taxpayer bring a representative action to set aside a contract entered, into between a municipality and a private corporation relative to lands held by the municipality in trust, in the absence of fraud, collusion, ultra vires, or a failure on the part of the municipality to perform a duty specifically enjoined?

No.

A taxpayer in his representative capacity can

[41]

sue a municipality only in cases involving fraud, collusion, ultra vires, or a failure on the part of the governmental body to perform a duty specifically enjoined.

(Nickerson

v.

County of San Bernardino,

179 Cal. 518, 522 [177 P. 465] ;

Dunn

v.

Long Beach L. & W. Co.,

114 Cal. 605, 609 [46 P. 607] ;

Pratt

v.

Security Trust & Savings Bank,

15 Cal.App.2d 630, 636 [1] et seq. [59 P.2d 862] ; 18 McQuillin, Municipal Corporations (3d ed. 1950) § 52.07, p. 23 ;

cf.

124 A.L.R. (1940) pp. 1238-1240.)

In the instant case it was stipulated by the parties at the beginning of the trial that there was no actual fraud, corruption, bad faith, or undue influence involved in the granting of the lease by defendant municipality to defendant development company. Ultra vires was not pleaded, nor was any evidence thereof presented during the trial.