Case ID: cal_14/html/0102-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Baldwin, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

THE PEOPLE, ex rel. PACKARD, District Attorney, v. THE SUPERVISORS OF SANTA BARBARA COUNTY.
    Mandamus does not lie to compel the Supervisors of a county to order a special election to fill vacancies in the offices of Assessor and Sheriff.
    It is difficult to see how Section 20 of the Act creating Boards of Supervisors, (Wood’s Dig. 694,) is unconstitutional. But the question is not here decided.
    Appeal from the Second District Court.
    In March, 1859, the Assessor and Sheriff of Santa Barbara County resigned their offices. The Board of Supervisors, at a meeting on the 29th of that month, appointed persons to fill the vacancies.
    This is an application for a mandamus compelling the Board to order a special election to fill said vacancies, on the ground that their appointments were void, because in conflict with the 13th Section of Article 2 of the Constitution.
    The Court below denied the writ. Relator appeals.
    
      A. Packard, District Attorney, for Appellant.
    
      Eugene Lies, for Respondents.
   Baldwin, J.

delivered the opinion of the Court—Cope, J. concurring.

There is no merit in this appeal. The plaintiff has mistaken the remedy, if there be any, to compel the defendants to order the elections for the offices named in his petition. He shows no title to the writ of mandamus prayed for. It is not necessary to decide the question of the constitutionality of the 20th Section of the Act creating a Board of Supervisors, (Wood’s Digest, 694,) though it is difficult to see how it conflicts with the Constitution. (See Attorney-General v. Squires, ante.)

Judgment affirmed.