Wiedwald v. Dodson

Citations

• 95 Cal. 450
• 30 P. 580
• 1892 Cal. LEXIS 847

Syllabus

<p>. 1 Municipal Corporations — Change of Boundaries — Construction of Statute—Unreasonable Exclusion of Territory—Special Election —Mandamus. —The act of March 19,1889 (Stats. 1889, p. 356), providing for the changing of the boundaries of cities and municipal corporations, and the exclusion of territory therefrom, was intended to provide for an ordinary reasonable change of the boundaries of a city, ^nd not a means by which a city might be practically disincorporat.ed; and where it appears, in a proceeding thereunder, that the extent and proportion of the population sought to be excluded from a city would leave less than one half the population necessary to form a municipal corporation, the right of an elector and property owner to a writ of mandate to compel the trustees of the city to call a special election, for the purpose of submitting • the question of the exclusion of the territory to the electors, will be denied.</p> <p>¡Id. —Mandamus in Discretion of Court —Violation of Spirit and Purpose of Law. — The writ of mandamus is not wholly a writ of right, but lies to a considerable extent within the sound discretion of the court where the application is made, and should not issue to compel a technical compliance with the letter of the law, in violation of its plain intent and spirit, nor to wrest a statute from its true purpose.</p>