City of Oakland v. Carpentier

Citations

• 13 Cal. 540

Syllabus

<p>Charters of corporations are special grants of power. The corporation has no powers except those expressly given, or which are necessary to the exercise of those expressly given.</p> <p>The powers delegated by the government io municipal corporations, are trusts, not subject to be delegated by the corporations.</p> <p>Under the Act of 1852, incorporating the town of Oakland, the corporate and municipal powers were lodged in a Board of Trustees. The Board had power “ to lay out, make, open, widen, regulate, and keep in repair, all streets, bridges, ferries, public places, and grounds, wharfs, docks, piers, slips, sewers, and alleys, and to authorize the construction of the same.” Under this clause the Board, by ordinance, gave defendant the exclusive privilege of laying out, establishing', constructing, and regulating, wharfs, etc, within the city, for thirty-seven years. Held, that the ordinance was void, as being a transfer of the corporate powers of the Board; and that the present city of Oakland, being the successor in law of the town of Oakland, can come into equity to have the ordinance declared void, and the wharfs, etc. held by defendants thereunder, delivered up.</p> <p>Where the charter of a city vests the corporate powers in a “ Board of Trustees to consist of five members, who shall be elected,” etc. and the law provides, that “at all meetings of the Board a majority of the Trustees shall constitute a quorum to do business,” a majority of those elected can organize and act at the first meeting, as well as at any subsequent meeting.</p> <p>If defendant, by conspiracy with others, procured them and himself to be elected to the Board of Trustees, for the purpose of defrauding the town of this property and these franchises, for his benefit, the whole transaction is illegal.</p> <p>And if defendant, as member elect of the Board, neither resigning nor qualifying, took advantage of his position to advance his personal interests, at the expense of those of the