Court Opinion

ID: 9536735
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 07:06:12.524311+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:55:10.699718
License: Public Domain

CARTER, J.,
Dissenting. — I dissent.
The majority decision is predicated on the police power doctrine and the main authority cited therefor in Archer v. City of Los Angeles, L. A. Nos. 17,612 and 17,613 (ante, p. 19 [119 Pac. (2d) 1]), this day decided. I pointed out in my dissent in those eases that although the majority opinion discussed the police power, it came to no conclusion in regard to its application to those cases; that discussion was dictum. In the instant case that dictum is the only authority relied upon for the majority decision. This is a practical illustration from a theoretical standpoint of “lifting one’s self by his own bootstraps.’’ That is, a dictum is set forth in one case to be used as authority for the decision in another case decided at the same time. This process is rendered even more obnoxious when the dictum is unsound, as is the case here.
*65In'my dissenting opinion in the Allison and Archer cases, I have endeavored to point out the inapplicability of the police power doctrine to a factual situation where property has been taken or damaged for a public improvement such as in the case at bar. What I said there is applicable to the case at bar, and for the reasons there given and under the authorities there cited, the judgment in the case at bar should be reversed.
Curtis, J., concurred.
Appellants’ petition for a rehearing was denied December 12, 1941. Curtis, J., and Carter, J., voted for a rehearing. Houser, J., did not participate therein. Spence, J., acting pro tem.