County of Santa Clara v. Hayes Co.

Plaintiff has appealed from a judgment of dismissal entered after it declined to amend its first amended complaint following the sustaining of a demurrer. In its first cause of action plaintiff alleged that it orally contracted with defendant for the latter to publish in its newspaper a proposed county charter for 10 days before the election of November 2, 1948. Owing to defendant’s negligence the publications of September 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st were so defective that the charter was invalidated in quo warranto proceedings commenced a few weeks after the charter went into effect on July 1, 1949. These proceedings were terminated by a decision of this court on May 28, 1951. On or about September 27, 1948, defendant filed its affidavit with plaintiff that the charter had been published for 10 days, and plaintiff did not discover that five of the publications were defective until November 10, 1948, after the charter had been approved by the voters. In May, 1949, plaintiff submitted the charter to the Legislature, and it was adopted and approved. Plaintiff seeks to recover the expenses it incurred in the preparation of the charter and its presentation to the voters. In its…