People ex rel. Sabichi v. Los Angeles Electric Railway Co.

This action is brought to have it determined that the defendant has forfeited and that it be excluded from all rights, privileges, right of way, and franchises acquired by it under a municipal ordinance passed by the city of Los Angeles on the twenty-eighth day of January, 1886. A copy of said ordinance is annexed to and made a part of the complaint.

In the complaint, two causes of action are separately stated. “The first,” in the language of respondent’s brief, “ is based upon the theory that the law does not permit any incorporated city or town in this state to grant authority to any individual or corporation- to lay railroad tracks through the streets or public highways of such city or town whereupon cars can be propelled by the force of electric power. The second rests upon the ground that if defendant had the right to construct railroad tracks through the streets of Los Angeles, whereon it could propel cars by such electric power, it had forfeited that right by its failure to complete the road within three years from the date of the ordinance granting the right of way to construct said road, as prescribed by the Civil Code.”

The complaint was demurred to by the defendant on…