Kumler v. Board of Supervisors

Citations

• 103 Cal. 393
• 37 P. 383
• 1894 Cal. LEXIS 786

Syllabus

<p>Classification of Counties—Creation of New County—Reclassification—Delegation of Power to Supervisors—Constitutional Law.—Section 235 of the County Government Act, which provides that when the population of an existing county shall have been reduced, by reason of the creation of any new county from the territory thereof, below the class and rank first assumed under that act, it should be the duty of the board of supervisors of such county to designate by order the class to which such county has been reduced by reason thereof, is not in conflict with section 5 of article XI of the constitution, which requires the legislature to classify the counties by population, and does not delegate to the board of supervisors the power to classify counties; but simply in effect authorizes them to find out and determine, as a fact, Dow many people are left within the boundaries of the old county after the new county is created, and when this fact is found, which is not a legislative act, the classification follows as declared by the statute.</p> <p>Id.—Local or Special Legislation.—Section 235 of the County Government Act is not a local or special law, in conflict with section 25 of article IV of the constitution; but applies to every existing county of the state whose class is changed by having a portion of its territory detached and put in a new county.</p> <p>Id.—Power of Supervisors—Determining Population—Federal Census—Construction of County Government Act.—The board of supervisors, in determining what is the population of a county, out of the territory of which a new county has been organized, is not limited to an inquiry as to what was the population within its present boundaries as shown by the last federal census, notwithstanding sections J 0 and 162 of the County Government Act make the census of 1890 controlling as to the classification of the several counties of the state as they then existed; and the language of section 235, in which no reference is made to the cen