People v. Hoge

Citations

• 55 Cal. 612
• 1880 Cal. LEXIS 334

Syllabus

<p>Charter of San Francisco—Constitutional Law.—Section 8, art. xi, of the Constitution—providing that “ any city, containing a population of more than one hundred thousand inhabitants, may frame a charter for its own government, etc.—is self-acting, and does not need legislation to give it effect.</p> <p>Id.—Id.—Elections — Board of Supervisors—Board of Election Commissioners—Board of. Freeholders.—Whatever powers were vested in the Board of Supervisors of San Francisco by the Consolidation Act, or the Political Code, were, under §§ 1, 33, and 34 of the Act of April 18th, 1878, transferred to the Board of Election Commissioners, in express terms; and the authority to cause a Board of Freeholders to be elected to frame a charter, (under the provisions of § 8, art. xi, of the Constitution) is therefore not vested in the former body.</p> <p>Id.—Id.—Id.—The only condition imposed by the Constitution to make the election, provided for in § 8, art. xi, of the Constitution, valid, is, that the freeholders must be chosen at a general or special election; and, where there has been such an election, the voice of the people is not to be rejected for a defect, or even a want of notice, if they have in truth been called upon and have spoken.</p> <p>Id.—Id.—Id.—Id.—Id.—Id. — Thornton, J., dissenting, was of the opinion that the power of fixing the day for holding an election, under the provisions of § 8, art. xi, of the Constitution, was not vested in the Board of Election Commissioners, or in the people acting era masse; and that such power, being legislative in its nature, was vested in some authority competent, under the Constitution, to legislate on the subject; and that the election of the freeholders involved in this cause was held without authority, and was void.</p>