Shepherd

This is an appeal in a proceeding in certiorari, from a decree of the Superior Court of San Joaquin County, canceling an order of the board of supervisors of that county which was previously made, authorizing the city of Stockton to annex certain uninhabited territory pursuant to the Statutes of 1899 and amendments thereto. (Stats. 1899, p. 37, and amendments thereto; 2 Leering’s Gen. Laws of 1931, p. 2590, Act 5163.) The order of the board was annulled on the theory that it was made without the formality of a legal hearing, without competent evidence that the territory sought to be annexed was uninhabited, and because the owners of more than one-half of the privately owned property, as distinguished from that portion which was owned by the city, had formally protested against the action of the board.

Stockton is an incorporated city which is governed by a charter. (Stats. 1923, p. 1321.) The city sought to annex a strip of uninhabited territory extending from the western border thereof along the northerly bank of the Stockton channel, westerly a distance of a mile and three-fourths, to its confluence with Smith canal. One-third of this tract of land, nearest to the border of the…