Bekins v. Heiken

PULLEN, P. J. At all the times herein mentioned petitioners were the owners and holders of matured bonds and coupons of Reclamation District No. 1500 in the sum of $12,260.

Immediately prior to the commencement of these proceedings these matured bonds and interest coupons were pre[847]sented to the respondent treasurer for payment, which was refused, however, upon the ground that at the time there was not sufficient money in the bond fund of the district to pay all of the outstanding matured bonds and coupons of the district. It did appear, however, that there was at that time, and at the time of the hearing of this petition, enough money in the hands of the treasurer to pay in full all outstanding unpaid matured bonds and coupons, which were obligations against the several allocations of said funds under the respective calls from July 1, 1932, to July 1, 1938, inclusive, except as to calls representing obligations maturing January 1, 1938, and July 1, 1938. The bonds owned by petitioners matured January 1, 1936, and January 1, 1938, and bore interest coupons which had become due January 1, 1935, and each six months thereafter up to and including July 1, 1938.

On September 30, 1938 (the petition herein was filed October 20, 1938), there was outstanding $40,000 of the first issue of this district’s bonds (which series was dated January 1, 1920), and by October 19, 1938, that issue had been reduced to $18,000. On January 1, 1930, the district had put out refunding bonds in the sum of $2,930,000, all of which latter issue was outstanding but not due.

It is also a matter of record that out of approximately 65,000 acres, the district was, at the date of the hearing of this matter, the owner of approximately 4,900 acres, which had vested under delinquent assessments of the first issue of bonds, and that some 6,800 acres were delinquent under the same issue, but were still subject to redemption.

The trial court found that neither the district nor the funds of the district were insolvent, and entered judgment that petitioners were entitled to a peremptory writ of mandate directing the respondent treasurer to pay to petitioners the sum of $3,000, being the amount of the first issue bonds held by petitioners which matured January 1, 1936, with interest at the rate of six per cent per annum from January 1, 1936, to date of payment, and the coupons which matured January 1, 1935, to and including July 1, 1937, in the amount of $5,070, and also to pay to petitioners the bonds which matured January 1, 1938, in the sum of $2,000 and coupons appurtenant thereto, maturing in 1938, in the sum of $2,190, pro rata with other obligations against the same calls, and that there should be added to the amount appurtenant to said