Skidmore

This is a mandamus proceeding to compel the payment by respondent, treasurer of Placer County, of a warrant for $2,231.48 issued by the county auditor upon a claim of petitioners allowed by the board of supervisors of the county. The matter was submitted upon a general demurrer to the petition. The only question pre sented is whether the purported contract between petitioners and the county of Placer, made on behalf of the county by its board of supervisors, was in excess of the authority of such board and therefore void.

The material facts shown by the petition are substantially as follows: On March 5, 1918, more than one thousand parcels of land in Placer County which had been sold to the state for delinquent state and county taxes, the delinquency in such case being prior to 1912, remained unredeemed, and unsold by the state, and none of the assessments thereon had ever been canceled. The result was that Placer County had not received any of the money coming to it on any of said assessments. Under these circumstances the board of supervisors entered into the contract here involved with petitioners, neither of whom was an officer of the county. The contract is evidenced by a…

I dissent. The petition and argument upon rehearing have not changed my opinion in regard to the matter. In view of the fact that many of the code sections cited in the previous opinions had not been discussed by the parties in their briefs, it was proper to grant a rehearing for the purpose of considering such arguments as might be presented in regard to their meaning or effect. Nothing has been presented, however, which changes my opinion in the matter, although it is true that there was an inadvertent statement in the opinion concerning the effect of section 3680 of the Political Code, it being the duty of the tax collector and not the assessor to mark upon the tax bills the words “Sold to the State.” Omitting the words “and tax bills” thus inadvertently used, and also omitting the statement of facts which is contained in the main opinion, that opinion is as follows: