Court Opinion

ID: 9626907
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 08:27:22.498536+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:06:36.157306
License: Public Domain

CURTIS, J.
Petitioner, as a registered elector of the City of San Rafael, filed his application for a writ of mandamus to compel respondents to publish a proposed amendment to the charter of said city, and to call a special election thereon not less than forty nor more than sixty days *416thereafter. An alternative writ of mandate has been heretofore issued; a return filed by respondents; and the cause argued orally by counsel for the respective parties.
It is alleged that a petition requesting the city council to submit to the electors of the city a proposed amendment to the city charter was circulated and signed by more than 15 per cent of the registered electors; that the petition was filed with the city clerk on December 4, 1940, along with a request to .publish the same within fifteen days thereafter and to hold a special election thereon not less than forty nor more than sixty days after such publication. It is further alleged that no publication was made within fifteen days from the date of filing nor was a special election thereafter called within a period of seventy-five days following the December 4th filing.
Petitionér contends that such failure to publish and call a special election within the seventy-five day period is in direct violation of article XI, section 8, of the state Constitution. The provisions therein, it is argued, make it obligatory, on the part of the city council, to so act within the period above designated. Petitioner, therefore, now asks this court to order the council to publish immediately and call a special election not less than forty nor more than sixty days thereafter.
Respondent city council, by its return, admits the filing of the petition and its refusal to publish and call a special election within the seventy-five day period, but alleges that a resolution was adopted at its meeting on February 3, 1941, wherein it ordered that publication of the petition for the proposed amendment be made on February 20, 1941, and that an election be held thereon on April 14, 1941; the latter date being the date fixed for the holding of a general municipal election of the city. It should be here noted that although petitioner in his original petition alleged that respondents had refused to publish said proposed amendment and had refused to submit the same to the registered voters of said city at the next general election, counsel for petitioner, during the oral argument, admitted that it was the intention of respondents to submit this proposed amendment at the next general election to be held in said city, as ordered by the city council in said resolution of February 3, 1941.
Respondents deny that they have violated article XI, section 8, of the state Constitution, and maintain that under *417its provisions it was discretionary with the council to submit said proposed amendment either at a special election to be called after publication of the proposed amendment or at the general election to be held on April 14, 1941.
The granting of a writ of mandate is discretionary and it will be granted only where necessary to protect a substantial right and only when it is shown that some substantial damage will be suffered by the petitioner if said writ is denied. (Rogers v. Board of Directors, 218 Cal. 221 [22 Pac. (2d) 509]; Fawkes v. City of Burbank, 188 Cal. 399 [205 Pac. 675]; Clough v. Baber, 38 Cal. App. (2d) 50 [100 Pac. (2d) 519]; DeBrincat v. Mogan, 1 Cal. App. (2d) 7 [36 Pac. (2d) 245].) It therefore follows that a petitioner upon application must show that as a result of a failure to grant such writ, he will suffer some substantial damage.
In the instant case petitioner is asking this court to issue its writ of mandate directing the city council to publish immediately said proposed amendment, and within not less than forty nor more than sixty days thereafter to call a special election on the proposed amendment even though a general election is to be held on April 14th. If the writ were issued immediately, a special election could not possibly be held earlier than April 2d, because of the necessity of publication and the forty day limit thereafter required by article XI, section 8, before election. However, as noted above, the respondent city council has ordered the proposed amendment to be placed on the ballot at the general election on April 14th or only twelve days after the earliest possible special election date. Petitioner does not contend that the amendment would be invalid if it be approved at the general election. During the oral argument counsel for petitioner made some statement to the effect that the proposed amendment if placed on the ballot at the general election, might be lost sight of and the petitioner therefore damaged. We do not believe this was seriously urged, but even if it were, this court could not make such assumption. Furthermore, counsel for respondents pointed out that this proposed amendment would be the only one on the ballot at the general election. Petitioner has completely failed to show how he, as a taxpayer, would be injured in any way by the short delay between the earliest date of a special election and the general election of April 14th.
*418No injury being shown, this petition should be denied, and it is so ordered.
Shenk, J., Edmonds, J., Traynor, J., and Gibson, C. J., concurred.