Glascock v. Wilde

WORKS, J.

The petition in this matter demanded the issuance of a writ of mandate requiring defendant to perform certain official acts. A demurrer to the petition was sustained, whereupon an amended petition was presented. A demurrer to that pleading being likewise sustained, but without leave further to amend, judgment went for defendant and petitioner appeals. The sole question in the ease is whether the demurrer to the amended petition was properly sustained.

The charter of Los Angeles provides, in section 198g, quoting only so much of it as is pertinent to our present inquiry, “No ordinance passed by the council shall go into effect until the expiration of thirty days from its publication, except [certain specified ordinances, and] an ordinance required for the immediate ^ preservation of the public peace, health or safety, which shall contain a specific statement showing its urgency, and is passed by a three-fourths vote of the council.” This language is contained in the portion of the charter securing to the people of the city the power to invoke the right of referendum and prescribing a system of procedure for the exercise of that right. The postponement for thirty days of the taking effect of ordinances, generally, is intended to furnish an opportunity for the circulation and filing of referendary petitions against them during that period.

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Ordinances of the kinds which are excepted from the operation of the thirty days clause, including those “for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health or safety,” etc., take effect upon their publication, and the right of the people to exercise the referendum, against them is denied, therefore, by section 198g.

The city council of Los Angeles passed an ordinance entitled “An ordinance prohibiting the solicitation of custom and patronage in railroad depots and upon railroad depot

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grounds and premises and upon certain portions of - the public streets adjacent thereto; regulating the solicitation of custom and patronage upon railroad trains, cars, boats and vehicles operated as common carriers; regulating the standing of vehicles upon depot grounds and premises and upon portions of the public streets, in the city of Los Angeles, adjacent thereto; prescribing a penalty for the violation thereof, and declaring that the enactment thereof is urgently required for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety.” Following sections regulatory of the matters referred to in the title it was provided in section 9 of the ordinance that “by reason of the fact that ordinance number 33,801 (new series), entitled: ‘An ordinance regulating the business of soliciting custom or patronage upon the public streets, boats, railway trains and depots and providing for the issuance of permits therefor,’ approved March 1, 1916, was expressly repealed by the provisions of section 2 of ordinance number 39,386 (new series), entitled: ‘An ordinance regulating the business of soliciting patronage upon public streets,’ approved September 23, 1919, and by reason of the repeal of ordinance number 39,385 (new series), entitled: ‘An ordinance regulating soliciting upon railroad trains, prohibiting soliciting upon depot grounds and upon certain portions of the public streets adjacent thereto, regulating the standing of vehicles upon portions of the public streets and prescribing a penalty for the violation thereof,’ approved September 23, 1919, there is now no ordinance of the city of Los Angeles in force or effect regulating the solicitation of custom and patronage in or about railroad depots and premises or upon public streets or sidewalks adjacent thereto, or regulating the solicitation of such custom and patronage upon trains, cars, boats and vehicles operated as common carriers, or regulating the standing of vehicles upon depot grounds or premises, or upon public streets adjacent thereto, and the absence of adequate prohibitory and regulatory legislation admits of, has resulted in, and will continue to result in the indiscriminate and unrestrained solicitation of custom and patronage upon such trains, cars, boats and vehicles- and at and about such railroad depots and premises and upon public streets and sidewalks adjacent thereto, and the peace of the general public