People ex rel. Bettner v. City of Riverside
Before: Foote, Myrick
Synopsis
Municipal Corporation—Proceedings for Establishment of—Notice of Election — Cmr of the Sixth Class. —The notice of the election for the incorporation of the defendant recited that “a petition having been duly presented to the board of supervisors of the county of San Bernardino, signed by at least one hundred qualified electors of the county resident within the limits of the proposed corporation, which petition particularly set forth the boundaries of this proposed corporation, and stated the number of inhabitants therein to be about three thousand. ” Held, that the notice was sufficient to indicate to the voters that the proposed city would be of the sixth class, under the act of March 13, 1883.
Id.—Inclusion of Lands not Benefited.—The propriety of establishing a municipality, and of including within its boundaries a particular territory, is in general a political question for the legislative department of the government; and if the course pursued in establishing a given municipality substantially complies with the statute, the courts will not interfere on the ground that certain territory would not derive any benefit from being included therein.
Foote, C. Department Two of this court affirmed the judgment of the court below, which had been rendered in favor of the defendant.
The only point advanced by the plaintiff on a rehearing questioning the correctness of that opinion is that the notice of the election given by the board of supervisors is defective in that there was nothing in it from which the voters could classify the proposed municipal corporation, or vote intelligently upon the question of incorporation.
[462]The part of the notice material to the question raised is as follows:—
“Election notice to incorporate the city of Riverside:—
“A petition having been duly presented to the board of supervisors of the county of San Bernardino, signed by at least one hundred qualified electors of the county resident within the limits of the proposed corporation, which petition particularly set forth the boundaries of this proposed corporation, and stated the number of inhabitants therein to be about three thousand,” etc.
Before reading that petition, the voter was charged with notice of the fact that under the law of this state a city of the sixth class must be one not exceeding three thousand in population. Possessed of such knowledge, upon reading the notice under consideration, he would further perceive that he was to vote upon the question of incorporating or not a city to be called Riverside. G^hat a petition had been presented to the board of supervisors which declared to such board that the proposed limits of the municipal corporation would contain about three thousand inhabitants. A reasonable interpretation of “about three thousand inhabitants” is three thousand inhabitants, and no excess above that. Thus the voter would be notified that the board of supervisors had received that information; and as there is nothing in the notice which indicates that the said board doubted that such statement was true, or gave expression to anything which would negative the idea that they had ascertained that the proposed corporation limits would contain three thousand inhabitants, the voter would come reasonably and naturally to the conclusion that he was to vote for or against the incorporation of a city to be called Riverside, the proposed limits of which would contain a population not exceeding three thousand; and as he already knew that such a city would under the act of March 13, 1883, be of the sixth class, we do not perceive but what the notice contained all that was
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