Peairs v. Chambers

JAMES, J.

Petition for mandate. The petitioner, Honorable Howard A. Peairs, is one of the judges of the superior court in and for the county of Kern, and has held that office since a time prior to the first day of January, 1915; and prior to the nineteenth day of May, 1915, collected as such judge his salary at the rate of five thousand dollars per annum which was paid in monthly installments one-half by the county of Kern and one-half by the state, as is prescribed by law. Respondents, subsequent to the date last mentioned, refused to issue warrants in payment of the salary of petitioner in any amount other than at the rate of four thousand dollars per annum. This position was taken by respondents because of the passage and approval of an act of the legislature which apparently fixed as the annual salary of the superior judges of the county of Kern the amount of four thousand dollars. It is the contention of petitioner here that this act made no change in the amount theretofore provided to be paid on ac

[586]

count of the salary attached to his office. The condition of the legislation affecting this subject may be briefly stated. For many years chapter Y of the Political Code embraced certain sections which fixed the amounts of the salaries of the justices of the supreme court, judges of the superior court, and officers of the former court. The chapter was devoted especially to this subject. By section 737 it was provided that the annual salaries of the judges of the superior courts of some fifty counties of the state should be of certain amounts, the counties being named in the section and the respective amounts assigned to them. Section 738, which immediately followed, provided that the salaries of all of the judges of the other superior courts (meaning those not specially named in section 737) should be of one amount alike. By these two sections then, in general, the matter of the salaries of the superior judges of the entire state was completely covered; in other words, reading the two sections together, as they are intended to be read, we have a general law (general in the sense that it covers all of the counties of the state as to the matter therein legislated upon) fixing the salaries of superior judges. Section 737 of the Political Code was amended by the legislature in 1911 (Stats. 1911, p. 63), which made some changes as to the amount of the salary to be paid to superior judges of certain counties. This amendment of that section did not change the amount provided to be paid to the superior judges of Kern County, which was therein stated to be, as it had theretofore been, the sum of four thousand dollars per annum. However, later in the session of the same year (Stats. 1911, p. 1421), a special act of the legislature was passed which applied to the county of Kern alone and provided, in part, as follows: ‘ ‘ The annual salary of each of the judges of the superior court of the state of California, in and for the county of Kern, is $5,000.” This act contained a special repealing clause repealing all acts and parts of acts in conflict therewith. It was under the provisions of this act that petitioner collected his salary at the rate of five thousand dollars per annum, and makes his claim here that he is entitled to have the same amount continued to be paid to him. In the year 1915 an act of the legislature was approved on May 19th, by which it was provided that section 737 of the Political Code should be amended. In this act the section mentioned, as it stood after the amendment of 1911,