Meyerfeld v. South San Joaquin Irrigation District , 3 Cal. 2d 409 ( 1935 )

THE COURT.

On petition for rehearing, it is urged for the first time that a ratifying statute of 1931 (Stats. 1931, p. 376) had the effect of curing the illegal act of the board of directors of the district in recognizing and complying with the unauthorized condition attached to the bid of the purchasers of the bonds of the sixth issue. The answer of the intervener urges with much merit that it is obvious from a reading of the ratifying, statute that it was the purpose of the legislature thereby to cure the irregular exercise of power and not to validate an antecedent act attempted in the total absence of power. In addition, section 2' of the act specifically provides that for the purpose of paying interest and principal on bonds of the district, the board of directors and other officers of the district shall exercise the same powers and perform the same duties with reference to the assessment, levy and collection of taxes, and with reference to the custody of funds for payment of bonded indebtedness as were provided in the respective laws authorizing the issuance of said bonds. The laws with reference to the authorization and issuance of the bonds of the sixth issue were admittedly strictly complied with. The duties of the board of directors and other officers having charge and control of the bond fund were explicitly set forth in the laws in force at the time of the issuance of said bonds. The very terms of the ratifying statute therefore excluded the curative effect contended for by the petitioner.

Also, on petition for rehearing amici curiae on behalf of Sierra and San Francisco Power Company and Pacific Gas and Electric Company, express apprehension lest the decision in this case lay open to challenge those portions of the contract of January 2, 1925, between said corporations and the board of directors of the district relating to the use by said corporations of the Melones Dam reservoir for the generation of electrical energy, and to the payments to the 'irrigation district for such use in accordance. with the terms of the contract. No party to this proceeding has assailed the contract in so far as it provides for such use and payment, nor even intimated that those provisions of the contract are invalid or not binding on the district. The inoperative provisions of said contract purporting to bind the district to the allocation of power revenues exclusively to a particular bond issue would appear to be readily severable from, and to have no effect upon, the other provisions of the contract with reference to the use of the reservoir by said corporations and to payment for such use. This proceeding involved the proper application of the power revenues after the same had been received by the district. The right arid power of the district to receive the money under the contract are not questioned.

The petition for rehearing is denied.