California Supreme Court, 1909

City of Los Angeles v. Lelande

California Supreme Court · Decided December 22, 1909 · THE COURT.

106 P. 218; 157 Cal. 30; 1909 Cal. LEXIS 256

Cases that cite this one

4 later published cases cite this decision.

County of Orange v. Backs (Cal. Ct. App. 1926)
Golden Gate Bridge & Highway District v. Felt (Cal. 1931)
Thoits v. Byxbee (Cal. Ct. App. 1917)
Marin Municipal Water District v. Dolge (Cal. 1916)

This list shows which later cases cite this one. It does not say how they treated it, and no review of that has been done. Not a substitute for Shepard’s or KeyCite — verify before relying.

Opinion of the Court

The petition is denied.

The application is within the precedent established by City ofLos Angeles v. Hance, 137 Cal. 490, [70 P. 475], but the court is of the opinion that this decision should not be followed. The city clerk is a purely ministerial officer, whose duty it is to sign any and every ordinance which has been duly passed, regardless of any views which he may entertain as to its legality or illegality. Mandate directed against the clerk for his refusal to sign an ordinance could properly go no further than to order him to perform his plain duty, and any discussion touching the legality or illegality, constitutionality or unconstitutionality of the ordinance in question would be the merest obiter, binding upon no one, and not determinative of any rights.

Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.