Hammond Lumber Co. v. Board of Supervisors

California Court of Appeal May 19, 1948 No. Civ. 7479Published

Before: Peek

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Holding. The court held that the board of supervisors' annexation order was a legislative act rather than a judicial proceeding, and therefore not subject to review by certiorari, and further affirmed the trial court's finding that the petitioner was barred by laches.

Issues

Whether the board of supervisors' order of annexation is a judicial act subject to review by certiorari.
Whether the trial court properly invoked the doctrine of laches in denying the writ of review.

Disposition. affirmed

Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion

“the trial court sustained the demurrer without leave to amend and quashed the writ on the grounds that the proceedings of the board culminating in its order of annexation were not judicial in character and therefore not subject to review”

“the procedural scheme approved therein has none of “the usual elements of a judicial proceeding, the notice, the hearing, the taking of evidence, and the judgment.””

PEEK, J.

This is an appeal from the judgment of the Superior Court of Humboldt County sustaining respondents’ demurrer without leave to amend and granting their motion to quash the writ of review previously granted.

By its petition in said court petitioner sought a writ of review to determine the jurisdiction of the board of supervisors, to order the annexation of the Patrick’s Point, Stone Lagoon and Crick Elementary School Districts to the Areata Union High School District under Education Code, sections 3761 and 3762.

Section 3761 provides:

“A majority of the electors residing in any school district contiguous to a high school district, in the same or adjoining counties, as shown by the affidavits of one or more of the petitioners, may present to the superintendent of schools, who has jurisdiction over the high school district, a petition for the annexation of the school district to the high school district. The petition shall be accompanied by an agreement signed by a majority of the members of the high school board of the district to which annexation is desired, and by a majority of the trustees of the school district, consenting to the annexation and setting forth the terms of the annexation. The superintendent of schools shall, after verifying the signatures and finding them sufficient, transmit the petition and agreement to the board of supervisors of his county with his recommendations. ’ ’

[570]

Section 3762 provides:

“After receiving the petition together with the recommendations. of the superintendent, the board of supervisors may make an order annexing the school district to the high school district upon the terms agreed upon.”

The alleged grounds for contesting the annexation' were (1) that the Stone Lagoon and Crick Elementary School Districts were not contiguous to the Areata Union High School District, (2) that the petition for annexation of the Patrick’s Point District was not signed by a majority of the resident electors in said district as required by statute and in fact was opposed by a majority of the electors, and (3) that one petition containing the signatures of 12 resident electors of the Patrick’s Point District did not include an affidavit attesting to its sufficiency, also as required by said section 3761.

Hammond Lumber Co. v. Board of Supervisors

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PEEK, J.

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