Nye

This is a direct application to this court by the petitioners for a writ of mandate to compel the respondent, as state controller, to draw his warrant on the state treasurer for the sum of $784.50, which said sum is alleged in the petition to be an unexpended balance of the sum of $10,000 appropriated by the legislature of 1903 for the support and maintenance of the Woman’s Belief Corps Home Association, located at Evergreen, Santa Clara county, California.

It is alleged in the petition that the petitioners presented to the state board of examiners a duly verified account and demand for the payment of said sum of $784.50, and that said board, on the fifteenth day of February, 1908, allowed and approved the said account and demand for said sum, and on the same day presented the same to the respondent with the request that he draw his warrant upon the state treasurer in favor of the petitioners for the payment of said claim; and that said respondent, as state controller, refused to draw his warrant on the state treasurer for the same. Annexed to and made part of the petition is a letter from the respondent addressed to the attorney for the petitioners herein, giving his reason for…