Kennedy v. City of Gustine

THE COURT.

The following opinion prepared by Presiding Justice Finch and concurred in by Justices Plummer and Thompson of the third appellate district we hereby adopt as the decision of this court:

“ The defendant City of Gustine, which will be referred to herein as the defendant and respondent, is a municipal corporation of the sixth class. In the year 1920 it employed the plaintiff to perform the engineering work and supervise the construction of certain street improvements under the Improvement Act of 1911. (Stats. 1911, p. 730.) After the plaintiff had performed part of the services for which he was employed, and after the defendant had adopted a resolution of intention to make the improvements, it abandoned the proceedings and terminated the plaintiff’s employment. In an action against the defendant the plaintiff recovered judgment for the reasonable value of the services he had performed. The judgment was affirmed on appeal.

(Kennedy

v.

City of Gustine,

199 Cal. ’ 251 [248 Pac. 910].) Thereafter the plaintiff instituted this proceeding for a writ of mandate to compel the defendant and its officers to raise the amount of the judgment by a tax levy. Judgment was entered in favor of the defendants and the plaintiff has appealed.

“It was stipulated at the trial that the defendant’s indebtedness to the plaintiff 1 exceeded the income and revenue of said City of Gustine from all sources provided' for the year in which said indebtedness and liability was incurred,

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and that said indebtedness and liability was so incurred without the assent of two-thirds of the qualified electors of said City of Gustine voting at an election for that purpose. ’ The only question to be determined is whether the indebtedness was incurred in violation of section 18, article XI, of the Constitution, which provides:

“ ‘No . . . city . . . shall incur any indebtedness or liability in any manner or for any purpose exceeding in any year the income and revenue provided for such year, without the assent of two-thirds of the qualified electors thereof, voting at an election to be held for that purpose.’