Jefferson Union School District v. City Council

WOOD (Fred B.), J.

The appellant school district instituted these proceedings in mandamus and in certiorari against the respondent city, questioning the legality of the adoption of a resolution by the city council on March 17, 1953, proposing the annexation of certain territory under the Annexation of Uninhabited Territory Act of 1939 (Gov. Code, §§ 35300-35326 and §§ 35000-35003

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). From a judgment in favor of the city, the district has appealed.

(1).

Did the city council have jurisdiction to adopt

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the resolution in. view of the fact that the petition for annexation was circulated and signed before it was submitted to and reported upon by the county boundary commission

even though such submission and report occurred prior to such action by the city council?

The question is posed by section 35002 of the Government Code: “No petition seeking the annexation of territory to a city shall be circulated or filed, nor shall any public officer accept any such petition for filing, nor shall any legislative body initiate proceedings to annex on its own motion, until the proposal for the annexation of territory to a city has been submitted to and reported upon to the proponents by the boundary commission of the county with respect to the definiteness and certainty of the proposed boundaries.

“If the boundary commission does not report upon the petition or proceeding within 20 days after it is submitted to it, the petition or proceeding shall be deemed correct.”

When, as in the instant case, a city council has received an appropriate petition bearing the signatures of a sufficient number of landowners and a report of the county boundary commission that the proposed boundaries described in the petition are definite and certain, it would seem an idle and useless act to return the petition to the proponents for re-signature by the petitioners and resubmission to the council. The purpose of the statute has in fact been accomplished without such recirculation and resubmission.

We do not think that the Legislature intended to make any such requirement when it added section 35002 to the code and amended section 35301 to make it applicable to the Annexation of Uninhabited Territory Act of 1939.