Granger v. Orange County Bd. Supervisors

STONE, J. pro tem.

*

This appeal concerns a proposal by the Board of Supervisors of Orange County to lease certain tidelands to be operated as a beach and recreation area. By chapter 526, statutes of 1919, as amended by chapter 575, statutes of 1929, the county of Orange was granted in trust certain tide and submerged lands in upper Newport Bay. In August of 1957, the county and the Orange County Harbor Improvement District announced that several acres of land so reclaimed would be leased to private interests for development. Following informal negotiations conducted with interested prospective lessees by representatives of Orange County and the Orange County Harbor Improvement District it was announced that formal negotiations for a lease would be undertaken with the intervener Ira Dowd. Appellant sought to enjoin the negotiations and execution of a lease, to recover damages by reason of an alleged wrongful conspiracy between the defendants and intervener Dowd, and for declaratory relief. The trial court sustained defendants’ demurrer to plaintiff’s amended complaint without leave to amend. A judgment was entered accordingly and the plaintiff appeals.

At the time plaintiff’s complaint and amended complaint were filed, and at the time the demurrer to the amended complaint was heard, no lease had been executed. The pleadings alleged that the defendant board of supervisors was negotiating for a lease with intervener Dowd. The first cause of action of the amended complaint asked for an injunction to prevent the defendants from contracting with Dowd. The second cause of action asked for damages of $25,000,000. The third cause of action asked for declaratory relief. Defendants demurred upon the ground that the complaint disclosed on its face that no lease or contract had been executed and therefore no cause of action was stated. The court sustained defendants ’ demurrer without leave to amend, citing the case of

[276]

Barto

v.

Supervisors of the City & County of San Francisco,

135 Cal. 494 [67 P. 758]. That case holds, at page 496:

“The board of supervisors are a quasi-judicial body, whose duties are prescribed by statute. If they should let a contract in direct contravention of the charter, and in conflict with the power therein given, such contract would be void, and the plaintiff could not suffer any irreparable injury therefrom. The board has not yet acted. We must presume that it will do its duty, and let the contract in the method prescribed in the charter. In any event, we do not think that it is the policy of the law that the machinery of the court should be put in motion and the writ of injunction invoked upon evidence as to the intention of a judicial body in regard to some act which has not been attempted to be performed. If the board should not proceed in accordance with law, and should let a contract contrary thereto, the taxpayer is not without remedy. But he cannot come into court upon the supposition or belief that a public official, elected by the people, and sworn to perform his duty faithfully to the best of his ability, is going to disregard his oath and willfully violate the law.”