Hotchkiss

This is an appeal from a judgment awarding a writ of mandate to compel the appellant, as treasurer of Crescent City, to cash certain warrants issued to the respondent, a public service corporation, in payment of the purchase price of electric energy for lighting the city.

This is a companion case to that of Hobbs, Wall & Co. v. Moran, ante, p. 316 [ 293 Pac. 145 ], in which an opinion of this court was this day filed. The essential facts of the two cases differ materially.

The respondent is a public service corporation, engaged in the enterprise of manufacturing and marketing hydroelectric energy for lighting purposes in and about Crescent City. Hotchkiss, the president of this electric lighting corporation, was also a stockholder in a mercantile corporation doing business in the same community under the name of Hobbs, Wall & Company. Leo A. Dressier was the business manager of this mercantile establishment, working for it on a salary. He was not otherwise interested in the mercantile company. He was not a stockholder or' employee of the electric lighting company, He was, at the same time, a member of the city council and chairman of the finance committee of Crescent City. The…