Los Angeles City School District v. Payne

PRESTON, J.

This proceeding in mandate presents a single question: Are funds derived from the sale of school

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bonds available for the construction of pedestrian traffic tunnels in streets not abutting school grounds?

Section 4.990 of the School Code, containing provisions substantially as later incorporated in section 4.960 "(Stats. 1931, p. 718), provided that the governing board of a school district may call an election and submit to the electors of the district “the question whether the bonds of such district shall be issued and sold for the purpose of raising money for . . . The improving of school grounds ...” Pursuant to this section the people within Los Angeles City School District, at an election called for March 27, 1931, regularly voted bonds for the improving of school grounds within the district, a portion of which contemplated improvement was to be the construction of a pedestrian tunnel under Soto Street, a heavily traveled traffic artery, for the use of children attending the Sheridan school, which is located one block east of said thoroughfare. After the bonds had been issued and sold and plans and specifications for the project were under way, respondent county auditor refused to allow a warrant for $100 to cover the partial cost of services performed and expense incurred in said matter by the city of Los Angeles. Said city, and the school district, thereupon filed herein their petition for writ of mandate to compel respondent county auditor to approve and allow said warrant.

The petition, urging that construction of the underpass is authorized as an “improving of school grounds” "(sec. 4.960), makes a persuasive showing of great need for pedestrian tunnels for the safety of school children, due to the rapid growth of population and school attendance in said city and the enormous increase in swift motor traffic, particularly over main traffic arteries. Indeed, these facts are stipulated and also that such an underpass would best provide for the safety of the children and would tend, by reason of its proximity to said school, to make the school grounds accessible to the school children. It is further stipulated that no part of the site of the school is adjacent to or abuts upon said Soto Street or the exterior lines thereof and that the fee title to said street is vested in private persons, the city holding merely an easement for public highway purposes therein and at the site of the proposed tunnel.