Chambers v. Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District

BURNETT, J.

By an original application to this court petitioner seeks a writ of mandate to require the secretary of the board of directors of said district to certify to the sufficiency of a certain alleged petition filed with him for the recall of the directors and also to require the board to

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call an election based on such petition. It may be stated that, of the three directors sought to be recalled, one has died and another has resigned and their successors have been chosen since the petition was presented to the secretary. A demurrer on various grounds has been filed by the Irrigation District and the board of directors and a separate demurrer and an answer by the secretary, Charles P. Lambert. The answer puts in issue the question of the sufficiency of the alleged petition both as to form and the necessary, signatures and also denies that the petition referred to in this application is the same as the recall petition which was filed with him. We think, though, that we need go no further than the admitted facts to reach the conclusion that the writ should be denied.

The office of the writ of mandate is well understood and it is not doubted that the duty of said secretary in the premises is ministerial in its character. If the law imposed upon him the obligation to certify to said petition, manifestly the writ will issue. Whether such was his duty depends upon the question whether said petition complied with the requirements of the law. Section 28^ of the Recall Act, referring specifically to irrigation districts, approved January 2, 1912 (Stats. 1911, Extra Sess., p. 135), provided for the following procedure in such case: “A petition demanding the election of a successor to the person sought to be removed shall be filed with the secretary of the board of directors of such district, which petition shall be signed by registered voters in number to at least twenty-five per cent of the highest vote cast within such district for candidates for the office, the incumbent of which is sought to be removed, at the last general election in such district at which an incumbent of such office was elected . . . and said petition shall contain a statement of the grounds on which the removal or recall is sought. '. . . Each signer shall add to his signature his place of residence, giving the precinct, and if within a town having named streets and numbered houses, street and number. Each such separate paper shall have attached thereto an affidavit made by an elector of the district and sworn to before an officer competent to administer oaths, stating that the affiant circulated that particular paper and saw written the signatures appended thereto; and that accord