Hoffecker v. Board of Supervisors

CONREY, P. J.

The appeal herein is from an order made and entered in the above-named superior court dismissing plaintiff’s petition and the writ of review issued in the above-entitled cause.

It appears from the petition that on October 25, 1912, the board of supervisors of Los Angeles County granted the prayer of the petitioners in certain proceedings incident to

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the proposed incorporation of a city of the sixth class, to be known as the city of Manhattan, and ordered an election to be held on November 25, 1912, for the purpose of determining whether said proposed city should become incorporated. The petition of the plaintiff herein was filed on November 20, 1912, and the writ was on that day issued and made returnable on November 23, 1912. It was on this last-named date that, in response to a motion of defendants, the court made the order from which the appeal is taken.

In substance, the claims of the plaintiff are that the board of supervisors was without jurisdiction to order said election, and thát said want of jurisdiction resulted from the following facts, namely: 1. That less than fifty qualified electors of the county resident within the limits of the proposed incorporation were signers of the petition for incorporation; and, 2. That the petition for incorporation had not been published for at least two weeks before the time at which the same was to be presented to the board. Two other alleged defects in the proceedings are mentioned in the petition, but as these are obviously without merit and are not discussed in the briefs, they do not require further attention here.

One of the grounds of the motion to quash or set aside the writ and the petition herein was that, for reasons stated in the motion, the case is not one wherein a writ of

certiorari

properly issued. In a similar case the supreme court said: “It may be conceded, but only for the purposes of this case, that the board of supervisors, in determining that a proper petition has been so presented, supported by a proper affidavit that notice was published, acts judicially, or at least

quasi