People ex rel. Stoddard v. Williams

Thornton, J. This is an action for alleged usurpation of the office of recorder of Santa Barbara County by defendant Williams. The relator ivas elected recorder of Santa Barbara County at the election in 1882, and defendant ivas elected at the same time county clerk of said county. Defendant claims by virtue of his election as county clerk to be ex-officio recorder.

By section 4006 of the Political Code, the counties of this State, for purposes other than for roads and highways, are classified as follows :—

1. Those containing twenty thousand inhabitants or over constitute the first class;

2. Those containing eight thousand inhabitants and under twenty thousand, are the second class; and, —

° 3. Those containing less than eight thousand inhabitants constitute the third class. *

By section 4007 of same Code, “whenever a new census is taken, the counties, on the first day of July next thereafter are, by operation of law, classified under such census.” Each county must have a board of supervisors, consisting of seven members in counties of the first class, of five members in those of the second class, and of three in those of the third class. (Pol. Code, § 4022.)

Under the provisions of section 4025 of the Political Code, Avhenever, under the classification above stated, the number of supervisors of any county is either increased or diminished, the board of supervisors must redistrict the county into supervisor districts, to correspond with the number of supervisors to Avhich it is, under the neAV classification entitled. When the number is increased, at the first general election thereafter supervisors must be elected for such neiv districts in Avhich no supervisors then acting reside.

[90]The sections of the Code heretofore referred to, as well as those hereinafter referred to, were in force when the events occurred out of which the controversy in this case arose.

Prior to the first day of July, 1881, the county of Santa Barbara was, by operation of law, a county of the second class, and on the 11th day of August, 1882, the board of supervisors thereof passed an order redistricting the county into supervisor districts, so as to form five such districts, upon the ground that it had become, by an increase of population, a county of the second class, and thus entitled to have five members in its board of supervisors. In making this order, the board acted upon the census taken in 1880 by the authorities of the United States, under the provisions of the Act of Congress of March 3, 1879, entitled “an act to provide for taking the tenth and subsequent census.” The census (the 10th) was to be taken on or for the date of June 1st, 1880. (Section 1 of Act, 20 Stats, at Large, 473.)