Municipal Corporations—Illegal Payments from Public Funds— Suit by Taxpayer to Compel Repayment.—A taxpayer can maintain an action against the mayor and members of the city council of an incorporated city to compel them to pay into the city treasury for the benefit of the taxpayers and property owners of the city the amount of expenditures illegally made by them from the funds of. the city.

Id.—Demand.—In such an action, where it appears that a demand upon the officers to commence such a proceeding would be unavailing, it is unnecessary to make such a demand.

Id.—Nonjoinder of Municipality as Defendant—Sustaining Demurrer Without Leave to Amend.—While it is the general rule that the municipality itself, upon the refusal of its officers to maintain the action, should be impleaded as a party defendant, when the prayer of the complaint asks that the recovery be paid into the city treasury, it is improper to sustain without leave to amend a general demurrer to the complaint upon the ground that the municipality was not made a party defendant to the action.

Id.—Charter of the City of Santa Cruz—Vrooman Act—Street Work.—Under the terms of section 246 of the charter of Santa Cruz, the method by which the powers granted in section 14 of article II of the charter, shall be pursued, is that prescribed in the Vrooman Act (Stats. 1885, p. 147), and the provisions of section 16 of the charter are but a specific grant of power authorizing the council to do these things in legal and proper cases, and does not •overthrow the general provisions of the Vrooman Act prescribing the method by which they shall act in the exercise of such power.

Id.—Vrooman Act—Resolution of Intention—When Necessary.— The resolution of intention prescribed in the Vrooman act is jurisdictional and necessary in any case where it is sought to bind in whole or in part private property for the payment for the work to be done, but such resolution of intention is not necessary if the ■work be oí a character which the city proposes to do and may legally do at its own proper expense.

Id.—Recovery of Money Illegally Paid Out—Sufficiency of Complaint Against General Demurrer.—A count alleging that work exceeding in cost sixteen thousand dollars, was t'o a large extent il-' legally done, without resolution of intention, competitive bids at the letting of a contract, and that it was paid for out of funds of the city when it should have been by assessment on private property, accounting for the uncertainty of the allegations as to the circumstances surrounding each item by the fact that the records do not enable the pleader more specifically to describe the illegal character of the claims and demands audited, allowed, and paid for the work, is sufficient to withstand a general demurrer.

Id.—-General Welfare Clause—Includes Power to Light Streets Under Police Power.—A general welfare clause in a charter containing no express provision as to lighting streets, empowering the authorities “to exercise, within constitutional and statutory limits, all municipal and police powers necessary to the complete and efficient administration of the municipal government, although such powers may not be herein expressly enumerated,” authorizes the officials of the city to provide for, and incur expense in, lighting its streets.

Id.—Street Lighting—-Act of 1905 Controls Exercise of Power in Absence of Charter Provision.—The authority of the officers of a city to light the streets of the city under the provisions of the general welfare clause above-stated is controlled by the provisions of the street lighting act of 1905, (Stat's 1905. p. 564).

Id.—Contracts With Officials—Municipal Corporation Act— Rental of Surveying Outfit—Illegal Payment.—A payment for the rental of a surveying outfit upon a contract made with an official of the city in violation of the provisions of section 811 of the Municipal Corporation Act, which applies to cities of the fifth class of which Santa Cruz is one, is an illegal payment.

Id.—Legal Services—Payment to Member of Board of Education— Illegal Payment.—A payment of a sum of money to a law partnership for services to be rendered by them under a contract entered into at a time when a member of the firm was a member of the board of education of the city, is an illegal payment.

Id.—Humane Officer—Power to Employ Under Police Power.— The employment by a city of a person called a humane officer for the purposes indicated by the title given to him, although such officer is not referred to in the charter, is within the police powers of the city, and a payment to him for services is not illegal.