—Plaintiff is a county water district organized under an act of the legislature. (Stats. 1913, p. 1049, as amended.) It owned land outside its boundaries and within the County of Orange. In 1936 the county assessor assessed this property for county taxation. Plaintiff paid the taxes under protest and brought this action to recover the money. A demurrer to the complaint was sustained without leave to amend and this appeal from the judgment followed.

The sole question involved here is whether or not the land in question is subject to taxation under the provisions of section 1, article XIII, of the Constitution as amended in 1914. The pertinent provisions of that section are as follows:

Plaintiff maintains that it is a state agency endowed by the state with certain necessary sovereign powers; that it holds its property in trust for the state and that such property is expressly exempted from taxation as it is in effect property belonging to the state. Defendant maintains that plaintiff is a municipal corporation and that as such its land outside its boundaries is subject to taxation by the county. The precise question presented does not seem to have been decided in California.

It must be conceded that it has always been the policy of the law in California, since the adoption of the present Constitution, to exempt from taxation property of the state and state agencies generally classified as public corporations. It is also true that the property of municipalities, counties, and cities and counties, no matter where situated, were not taxed prior to the constitutional amendment of 1914, and that after the adoption of that amendment only certain properties outside of corporate boundaries could be taxed. This exemption from taxation of certain properties of districts recognized as state agencies was because of the express constitutional exclusion of the property of the state from taxation on the theory that these public agencies were holding-property by virtue of a trust in favor of the state and that the properties held by them were in effect properties of the state within the meaning of the constitutional provision. (See Turlock Irr. Dist. v. White, 186 Cal. 183 [ 198 Pac. 1060 , 17 A. L. R. 72]; Reclamation Dist. No. 551 v. County of Sacramento, 134 Cal. 477 [66 Pac. 668]; Argyle Dredging Co. v. Chambers, 40 Cal. App. 332 [ 181 Pac. 84 ].)

It is apparent from what we have said that the decision of the question before us largely depends on the answer to the question—Is the plaintiff a municipal corporation? We can be assisted in answering this question by considering the status, powers, and functions of certain somewhat similar public agencies on the one hand and of municipal corporations on the other. We need not consider counties, and cities and counties, because it is admitted that plaintiff is neither a county, nor a city and county. Defendant virtually admits that unless it can be held that plaintiff is a municipal corporation its property in question here cannot be taxed by defendant and that the judgment must be reversed.

A municipal corporation is created under authority of the state whereby a portion of the state and the inhabitants therein are organized into a political entity that exercises legislative, executive and judicial powers. (Sec. 6, art. XI et seq., Const.) A city is organized to give its inhabitants certain powers of self-government and is granted broad police powers. (Sec. 11, art. XI, Const.)

On the other hand we have in California a considerable number of governmental agencies exercising, to a limited extent, powers of government, vested in them by the various legislative enactments from which they draw their right of existence and power of operation. The governmental powers most common to the majority of them are the right of eminent domain and the right of taxation. Few of them possess legislative powers except in a very limited extent, and only quasi-judicial powers.

It is thoroughly settled that among such organizations, irrigation districts, drainage districts, utility districts, and other similar organizations, are not municipal corporations, but public agencies exercising governmental functions and that, under the theory that their properties are in effect properties of the state, they are not subject to taxation. (Sec. 85, 24 Cal. Jur. 102, and cases cited.) It must also be true that districts organized under special legislative enactments cannot be municipalities for their legality has long been recognized (Argyle Dredging Co. v. Chambers, supra) and the Constitution provides (art. XI, sec. 6) that “corporations for municipal purposes shall not be created by special laws ...”

It is true that none of these districts are identical in manner of organization and powers possessed. Nor are they precisely similar to county water districts. However, the right of eminent domain and the right of taxation is common to many of them, including county water districts.

While our courts have not ruled on the precise question before us, there are several comments in cases which constitute expressions of judicial opinion on the nature of county water- districts. The Supreme Court, in Coachella Valley Water Dist. v. Stevens, 206 Cal. 400 [ 274 Pac. 538 ], described a county water district as a governmental agency exercising governmental powers. In Morrison v. Smith Bros., Inc., 211 Cal. 36 [ 293 Pac. 53 ], it was said that a county water district was a public corporation that may be called a qwasi munieipal corporation. In Galt County Water Dist. v. Evans , 10 Cal. App. (2d) 116 [ 51 Pac. (2d) 202 ], county water districts were defined as “public corporations inferior in power and scope to a municipal corporation”. In Sacra mento M. U. Dist. v. All Parties, etc., 6 Cal. (2d) 197 [ 57 Pac. (2d) 506 ], the Supreme Court said:

Defendant cites and relies solely on Morrison v. Smith Bros., Inc., supra, as holding that a county water district is a municipal corporation.

We can find no such holding in the Morrison case. In the first place, no county water district was involved in that litigation and none was before the court. What appears in that decision concerning a county water district was said by way of argument and analogy. The Supreme Court did not hold that a county water district was a municipal corporation. In discussing the nature of such a district, and others, it quoted with approval from In re Orosi Public Utility Dist., 196 Cal. 43 [ 235 Pac. 1004 ], as follows (at page 52):

All that the Supreme Court held in the Morrison ease was that a municipal utility district, when acting in a proprietary capacity, had the same liability for torts as a municipal corporation acting in like capacity.

Because it lacks the broad legislative, executive and judicial powers of a municipal corporation, it seems clear that a county water district is not a municipal corporation as that term is technically used in the laws of this state. It follows that unless the people in adopting the 1914 amendment to section 1, article XIII, of the Constitution intended to give it some other meaning, a county water district cannot come within the provisions of that section which permits the taxation of property of a municipality lying outside of its corporate limits. The Supreme Court had occasion to consider the definition of the term “municipal corporation” as used in the 1914 amendment to the Constitution in Turlock Irr. Dist. v. White, supra, where it was said:

The court then proceeded to consider the effect of the amendment on irrigation, swamp land, drainage, levee and reclamation districts, and said:

(People v. Levee Dist. No. 6, 131 Cal. 30 [ 63 Pac. 676 ], People v. Sacramento Drainage Dist., 155 Cal. 373 [ 103 Pac. 207 ], Swamp Land Dist. No. 150 v. Silver, 98 Cal. 51 [ 32 Pac. 866 ], and Reclamation Dist. No. 70 v. Sherman, 11 Cal. App. 399 [ 105 Pac. 277 ]. See, also, People v. Selma Irr. Dist., 98 Cal. 206, 208 [ 32 Pac. 1047 ], and cases there cited.) The amendment in question must be considered to have been framed and submitted to the people with these decisions in mind, by which it was settled that such corporations were not ‘municipal corporations’.”

We have already concluded that a county water district does not fall within the technical definition of a municipal corporation. As the Supreme Court held that the term “municipal corporation” was used in the 1914 amendment to section 1 of article XIII of the Constitution in that technical sense, and no other, it follows that the property of plaintiff lying outside of its boundaries cannot be taxed under the provisions of that section. As there is no other authority for the taxation of such property by defendant it follows that its assessment and taxation by defendant cannot be supported.

The judgment is reversed.

Barnard, P. J., and Griffin, J., concurred.

A petition by respondent to have the cause heard in the Supreme Court, after judgment in the District Court of Appeal, was denied by the Supreme Court on April 10, 1939.