Los Angeles County Flood Control District v. Superior Court

CURTIS, J.

This case was argued and submitted for decision with the case of

City of Inglewood

v.

County of Los Angeles

(L. A. No. 10903),

ante,

p. 697 [280 Pac. 360]. That action involved the validity of certain assessments levied by the board of supervisors of the county of Los Angeles, acting for the Los Angeles County Flood Control District, the Los Angeles County Sanitation District No. 5 and the Los Angeles County Drainage Improvement District No. 8, upon property which was held in private ownership at the time of the creation and organization of said districts, but which had thereafter been acquired by the City of Inglewood and by it devoted to public use, and which was so held and used by said city at the time of the levy of said assessments. In our decision in said action we held that there was no authority for the levy of any of said assessments and that the same were

[711]

invalid and void. A similar assessment was levied by said board of supervisors of the county of Los Angeles, acting for and on behalf of the Los Angeles County Flood Control District, against public property of the City of Pasadena which, at the time of the creation of said Flood Control District, was held in private ownership, but which subsequently thereto had been acquired by said City of Pasadena and by it devoted to public use. The City of Pasadena refused to pay said assessment, and W. 0. Welch, the county tax collector (who was also tax collector of said district), advertised said property of the City of Pasadena for sale for said delinquent assessments. Prior to the date of holding said sale, however, the City of Pasadena brought an action in the Superior Court of the county of Los Angeles, in which it asked, among other things, for an injunction restraining W. 0. Welch, the said tax collector, from selling said property. A temporary restraining order was issued as prayed for by said Superior Court, and the defendant in said action, the said W. 0. Welch, as such tax collector, appeared in said action and filed a demurrer to the complaint therein and also a motion to dissolve said restraining order. Said demurrer was overruled and said motion was denied. Thereupon the Los Angeles County Flood Control District instituted this proceeding in the District Court, Second District, Second Division, against said Superior Court and two of the judges thereof, to prohibit said Superior Court from “taking any further proceedings against or making any other orders affecting the petitioner herein in said action, other than to dissolve the restraining order previously issued therein.” The City of Pasadena asked leave to file a petition in intervention in this proceeding on the ground that it was the real party in interest in opposing the petition for prohibition. Leave to intervene was granted to said city by said District Court of Appeal. The matter came on for hearing before said court, and after argument of counsel both oral and by written briefs, said court rendered its decision denying said writ of prohibition. Upon the petition of the Los Angeles County Flood Control District, said cause was transferred for decision to this court.