City of Redlands v. Brook

BEATTY, C. J.

This is an original proceeding in which the plaintiffs pray for a writ of mandate to compel the defendant to sign certain municipal bonds which the plaintiffs propose to issue. The canse has been submitted upon a general demurrer to'the complaint for want of facts. The material facts alleged, and by the demurrer admitted, are that Redlands is a city of the sixth class; that its board of trustees at a regular meeting duly adopted, by a vote of more than two thirds of all its mem

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bers, a resolution declaring it necessary to incur an indebtedness of fifty thousand dollars for the following purposes: “For electric lighting of said city to be furnished by private company for the fiscal year 1907; and for the care and maintenance of streets and public parks of said city for said fiscal year (not including, however, any municipal improvements of any kind or nature whatever)that said resolution was approved by the executive of said city; that an ordinance was duly passed calling for a special election at which the electors of said city should vote on the question of the issuance of the bonds; that the election was duly held, and that out of a total of 852 votes 753 were in favor of issuing the bonds; that thereupon an ordinance was duly passed providing for the issuance and sale of the bonds by which it was made the official duty of the defendant to sign the bonds and coupons; that deniand was made upon him to sign said bonds and coupons, but he refuses to do so, alleging as his reason for such refusal “that said bonds are invalid and void and would not create a legal obligation against said city if signed or executed by him.”'

It is further alleged that said proposed indebtedness of fifty thousand dollars will not exceed, together with all the indebtedness of said city, in the aggregate, fifteen per cent of the assessed value of all the real and personal property in said city. These, with other allegations of the complaint, it is conceded, show that all the constitutional and statutory requirements as to procedure in the matter of the issuance of municipal bonds have been fully complied with, but it is objected that the purposes for which the proceeds of the bonds are to be used are not among those for which municipal corporations are authorized to borrow money.

The declared purposes to which the proceeds of the bonds were to be applied, no less than the concluding portion of"the resolution to incur the indebtedness,—the-part in parenthesis, —which was carried into- the ordinance subsequently passed, show that the proceedings were not intended to be based on the act of February 25, 1901, (Stats. 1901, p. 27,) which confers authority to create a bonded indebtedness for the sole purpose of acquiring, constructing, or completing permanent improvements the cost of which will be too great to be paid out of the ordinary annual income and revenue of the municipality. The limited authority granted by this act would seem to indicate an