McMullen

This is an original application to this court for a writ of mandamus to compel the respondent irrigation district to pay to the petitioner and other bondholders of the first issue of bonds of that district the amounts of principal and interest due to them upon their respective securities from the proceeds which may hereafter be derived by the district as compensation for the Spalding ranch, consisting of 10,775 acres of land belonging to it, as the result of a condemnation suit which is now pending in the United States District Court of the Northern District of California between the government and the irrigation district. An alternative writ was issued in this proceeding, to which the respondents have filed a demurrer and a plea in abatement.

The demurrer asserts that the petition fails to state.facts sufficient to warrant the issuing of a writ; that the allegations of the petition are uncertain with respect to various specified details, and that there is a nonjoinder of a necessary party defendant, to wit, the Federal Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which is a creditor of the district and holds its bonds in a large sum as security for the payment of a loan of $802,500.

The…