Board of Library Trustees v. Board of Trustees

This is an action to restrain defendants from letting a contract for the erection of a public library building in the city of Hanford; the cost thereof to be paid out of the donation of $12,500 made by Andrew Carnegie. A demurrer was interposed to the complaint for insufficiency of facts, also that plaintiff had not legal capacity to sue, also for uncertainty. The demurrer was sustained without leave to amend, and judgment passed for defendants that plaintiffs take nothing by the action.

It appears from the complaint: That Hanford is a city of the sixth class, organized in January, 1892, under the act of March 13, 1883 (Stats. 1883, c. 49, p. 269); that pursuant to the act “to establish free public libraries and reading-rooms,” approved April 26, 1880 (Stats. 1880, c. 12(5, p. 231), the defendant board of trustees of the city of Hanford did regularly and duly pass a resolution establishing in said city a free public library and reading-room, and did provide for the levy and collection, as in other cases, annually, a tax not to exceed one mill on the dollar for the purpose of maintaining such free public library and reading-room in said city; that since April 11,. 1900, there has…