Yolo Water & Power Co. v. Superior Court

Petitioner asks the writ of this court to prohibit the respondent from sitting as judge at the trial of a condemnation proceeding wherein petitioner is plaintiff and the state and certain two hundred and six persons and corporations are defendants, now pending in the superior court of Lake County. Said action was commenced on April 1, 1912, to condemn land lying around the border of Clear Lake so as to raise the water level about ten feet for the purpose of supplying water for irrigating lands in Yolo, Solano, and Colusa counties and to generate hydro-electric power.

It appears from the petition, and is not controverted by the answer, that Judge M. S. Sayre, judge of the superior court of Lake County, is disqualified to try the action by reason of financial interest in the case; that, in 1912, Hon. William Pinch, judge of the superior court of Glenn County, was requested by Judge Sayre to try before a jury and he did try the issues of fact affecting one of the defendants, W. P. Mariner, in a separate trial; that Judge Pinch, in 1912, at the request of Judge Sayre, heard and determined an issue of law raised by defendant Walter B. Pearn, and that no other issues of law or fact…