Shearer

This proceeding was instituted to compel the defendant, as auditor of Sutter County, to issue a warrant for "salary alleged to be due petitioner as county surveyor under the provisions of section 4270 of the Political Code, as amended in 1923. (Stats. 1923, p. 1139.) Judgment was entered in favor of defendant and the petitioner has appealed. The facts are undisputed.

Prior to the legislative session of 1921 Sutter County was in the forty-eighth class. Section 4277, subdivision 12, as amended in 1919, fixed the compensation of surveyor in counties of the forty-eighth class at $900 per annum. (Stats. 1919, p. 114.) Acting under the provisions of the County Engineer Act (Stats. 1919, p. 1290), and prior to the legislative session of 1921, the supervisors of Sutter County appointed a county engineer. Section 11 of the act provided that “the office of county surveyor of any county shall be and is hereby abolished” upon the appointment of a county engineer, to take effect not later than the expiration of the then current term. Sections 4005c and 4006 of the Political Code were so amended in 1921 as to place Sutter County in the forty-first class. (Stats. 1921, pp. 2, 3.) At the same…