McCullough v. Riley

KNIGHT, J.

-This proceeding in rna~damu~ was instituted on behalf of San Benito County for the purpose of requiring the State Controller to deliver certain state warrants for the payment of the total sum' of $4,876.90, constituting the county’s share of the state “Motor Vehicle

[139]

Fund” collected by the state under the Motor Vehicle Act (Stats. 1923, p. 568). It is a proceeding identical in its nature to and involves the same main legal question presented in the one entitled

“County of San Benito, Plaintiff,

v.

Ray L. Riley, as Controller of the State of California, Defendant,”

numbered 5899,

ante,

p. 131 [263 Pac. 349], which has this day been decided by this court in favor of the plaintiff therein.

There the county was seeking to recover its share of motor vehicle fuel taxes collected by the state pursuant to the Motor Vehicle Fuel Act [Stats. 1923, p. 571], and the defense was that the county had refused to pay an alleged indebtedness to the state for the care of feeble-minded persons committed from that county to the Sonoma State Home. Here, as indicated, the county is seeking to recover its share of the operators’ and chauffeurs’ license fees collected by the state under the Motor Vehicle Act, the terms of which are similar to those of the Motor Vehicle Fuel Act with reference to the mathematical ascertainment of the counties’ shares thereof and as to the specific mandatory duty enjoined upon the controller to draw and deliver his warrants therefor to each county, providing the county has complied with the requirements of said act by creating the property county fund for the reception of the money and in making its annual reports.

The Controller here, as in the other proceeding, expressly admits the essential allegations of the petition showing that under the terms of the act the county is entitled to the delivery of the warrants for the total amount of money claimed, but he has interposed the defense that the treasurer of the county in whose official capacity this proceeding is being maintained has failed to pay to the state certain sums of money amounting in all to $5,750.88 claimed to have been collected by him for the state on account of inheritance taxes, property taxes, and the purchase of school lands; and the prayer of the answer is that this court, in the exercise of its equitable powers, adjust the claims of the respective parties and order withheld the warrants due the county until the treasurer pays the alleged indebtedness above mentioned.