Montecito County Water District v. Doulton

RICHARDS, J.

This is a petition for a writ of mandate wherein the Montecito County Water District, a public corporation, seeks to compel the respondent, H. J, Doulton, as president of said district, to sign certain bonds of said district which he has thus far refused to do. The facts out of which this proceeding arose, as set forth in said petition and conceded by the respondent to be truly stated thereunder, are briefly as follows: The Montecito County Water District was duly organized and exists under the provisions of an act of the legislature entitled “An act to provide for the incorporation and organization and management of County Water Districts,” etc., approved on June 10, 1913 (Stats. 1913, p. 1049), as amended in 1915 (Stats. 1915, p. 26), and in 1917 (Stats. 1917, p. 225), and in 1919 (Stats. 1919, p. 816). The location of said district is in the county of Santa Barbara, state of California. On the twentieth day of January, 1923, the board of directors of the said Montecito County Water District duly passed and adopted a resolution declaring it to be necessary for said district to incur a bonded indebtedness for the purposes and in an amount set forth in said resolution, which also fixed the maximum term the bonds representing such indebtedness were to run before maturity and the maximum rate of interest to be paid thereon, and further fixing the date at which a special election should be held for the purpose of authorizing said bonded indebtedness. The said resolution in all respects conformed to the requirements of the statute as the same stood at the date of the adoption of said resolu

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tion and also at the date fixed for the holding of said election. The said board of directors of said district also adopted on said date and in due form a resolution providing for the giving of notice of such election. Thereafter, and on March 1, 1923, the said special election was duly and regularly held throughout said district, pursuant to the resolution calling the same and providing for the notices thereof, which were duly and regularly given, at which said election the said proposition to incur said bonded indebtedness and issue said bonds was carried, and so declared to be by the said board of directors thereof upon a proper canvass of the votes cast thereat. The amount of said bonds thus authorized to be issued was $850,000, each of said bonds being issued in the sum of $1,000 and bearing interest at four per cent per annum, payable semi-annually. Thereafter and on the twentieth day of July, 1923, the said board of directors of said water district, pursuant to the authority by which they were thus invested, duly and regularly sold at public auction 100 of said bonds to the Pacific Southwest Trust and Savings Bank of Santa Barbara for the full par value thereof, plus interest to the date of issuance, plus a premium of $50, and thereafter duly received said sums as ■the purchase price thereof and delivered said bonds to the said purchasers; all of said bonds so sold are still outstanding and no part of the principal thereof has as yet been paid thereon.