County of San Diego v. Seifert

License Tax—Ordinance of Supervisors—Action by County—Pleading— Uncertainty— Defects Cured by Answer and Judgment. — In an action by a county to recover a license tax imposed by an ordinance of the supervisors, where the complaint alleged that the defendant was required to procure a license tax under and by virtue of an ordinance of the board of supervisors of said county duly passed and approved at a regular meeting, and thereafter duly published as required by law, and alleged a failure, refusal, and neglect of defendant to pay such license tax, in violation of the ordinance, but did not allege specifically that defendant failed to take out a license, and the defendant, without demurring to the complaint for uncertainty, filed an answer taking issue upon the passage or approval of the ordinance, and upon the failure of the defendant to take out a license, it is too late after such answer, and after decision and judgment, to object that the complaint was uncertain, and did not show the existence of the ordinance, or a violation of the ordinance upon which the action was founded.

Id. — General Findings —• Support of Judgment. — A general finding that all the allegations of the complaint are true, and the denials and allegations of the answer are untrue, is sufficient to support a judgment in favor of a county for the collection of a license tax sued upon.

Id. — Evidence —Ordinance Fixing Regular Meetings of Supervisors —Burden of Proof. —Where the question at issue is, whether an ordinance of the supervisors imposing a license tax was passed at a regular meeting, and the plaintiff introduced in evidence a prior ordinance of the supervisors, declaring that the regular meetings should be held on the first Monday of every month, the validity of which ordinance was not put in issue by the pleadings, the plaintiff is not required to show that the meeting at which such ordinance was passed was itself a regular meeting.

Id. — Presumption from Record of Ordinance. —The presumption arising from the existence of an ordinance upon the record of ordinances is sufficient to entitle it to be received in evidence without further proof, in the absence of evidence showing its invalidity.

Id. — Continuity of Regular Meeting of Supervisors — Attestation of Minutes Showing Adjournment — Unsigned Record. — Section 19 of the County Government Act, providing that the records and minutes of the board of supervisors must be signed by the chairman and clerk, merely has the effect to make their signatures evidence indentifying the minutes; and their failure to sign the minutes does not render the record inadmissible as proof of the action of the board, in meeting and adjourning, for the purpose of showing the continuity of the session of the board at a regular meeting; but if the handwriting of the entries, their contemporaneous character, and the official custody from which the record is produced are proved, the minutes are competent to show the action of the board.