House

This is an application for mandate against the respondent, as treasurer of the town of Mill Valley, to compel him to countersign certain municipal bonds and the interest coupons attached thereto. He justifies his refusal upon the ground that the bond issue is illegal and void. The propositions presented by him in this regard are two.

1. The bonds were issued under the Municipal Improvement Act of 1901. (Stats. 1901, p. 27.). The earlier act of 1889 contained no provision for the doing of “street work.” The act of 1901 expressly empowers the authorities to issue bonds for “street work.” The act of 1889 came under review in the City of Redondo Beach v. Cate, 136 Cal. 146 , and it was there held that that act did not authorize the issuance of bonds which must be paid out of the revenue derived from taxes upon real and personal property, unless the money raised upon the bonds was to be devoted to purposes justifying the expenditure of the ordinary revenues of the city, that the ordinary revenues of a city of the sixth class could not be expended for the grading and paving of its streets, and further that “street work” was not one of the specially enumerated objects for which the act…