Riley

-The County of San Benito has petitioned this court for a writ of mandate to compel the State Controller to deliver to the county certain state warrants for the payment of the total sum of $29,685.24, representing the county’s share of moneys collected by the state pursuant to the terms of an act of the legislature imposing a license tax upon the business of producing, refining and distributing motor vehicle fuel, known as the Motor Vehicle Fuel Act. (Stats. 1923, p. 571.)

Answering, the Controller expressly admits the allegations of the county’s petition showing that according to the terms of said act the county is entitled to said warrants for the amount claimed, but he has interposed a special defense which in substance sets forth that the county refuses to pay to the state an alleged indebtedness in the sum of $13,336.44 incurred under the provisions of sections 2192 and 2193 of the Political Code for the support of feeble-minded persons committed to the Sonoma State Home by the superior court in and for that county. The prayer of the answer is “ (1) That this court, as a court of equity, take up, consider and determine the respective claims of the plaintiff and the defendant…