Dodge

These proceedings were instituted to compel the respondent Dodge, as chairman of the board of supervisors of the county of Los Angeles, and the respondent Snyder, as mayor of the city of Los Angeles, to execute a certain lease on behalf, respectively, of the two bodies politic, the board of supervisors of the one and the city council of the other having ordered such execution, and the respondents having refused to obey the orders. The petitions in the two proceedings allege the same facts and the return in each is identical with that in the other. These returns are in the form of general demurrers to the petitions. The entire controversy may, therefore, be resolved from the faces of the petitions, and the two proceedings may be treated as one.

In addition to the county and the city, there are two organizations which find frequent mention in the petitions. One of these is the Sixth District Agricultural Association, “a public corporation of the State of California, to wit, an agricultural district.” The other is the Community Development Association, “a nonprofit co-operative corporation duly organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the state of California, with…