Willert

Before a trial began, the defendant obtained the dismissal of the complaint which charged that he had operated a passenger bus of the Bay Cities Transit Company in violation of Los Angeles City’s initiative ordinance numbered 58198, adopted June 7, 1927. As we are of the opinion that the ordinance is now ineffective, because directly in conflict with the superior authority vested in the state railroad commission, the order of dismissal, from which the People have appealed, must be affirmed.

There is no doubt that the legislature has endeavored to give the railroad commission exclusive authority in the field in which the ordinance attempts to function. By the terms of the ordinance it is stated that the city’s board of public utilities and transportation may issue a permit to operate a motor bus (defined as being a motor-propelled vehicle for public use in the transportation of persons, for compensation, over any public street in the city, whether operated wholly or partly within the city) if the board shall declare that the public convenience and necessity require its operation. The board is also authorized, according to the terms of the ordinance, to revoke a permit which it has…