Zampelli

The respondent corporation and its duly elected directors and officers petitioned the Superior Court of Los Angeles County for a writ of mandate, directing the defendants and appellants to deliver to the petitioners the corporate books and records which were withheld by said defendants, whom the petitioning directors had theretofore succeeded. The writ was granted as prayed, and the defendants appealed.

The evidence and findings of fact below are not here questioned. Section 599 of the Civil Code provides that corporate powers, business and property of corporations formed for purposes other than profit, as was the one here in question, may be exercised, conducted and controlled by a board of directors. Section 310 of the same code also provides that such board may be removed from office by a vote of two-thirds of its members at a general meeting called by previous notice of the time and place thereof.

Appellants’ assertions of procedural defects in the election and incidental errors are not sufficiently supported to justify comment. Unquestionably the internal affairs of religious corporations like those of any others are vested exclusively in the directors. The books and…