Coyne

This is a proceeding for a writ of mandate to the respondent in his official character as auditor of the city of San Diego, commanding him to issue his warrant for an unpaid portion of plaintiff’s salary as chief of police. The respondent demurred to the petition for the writ. The court sustained the demurrer, and dismissed the proceeding. Plaintiff brings this appeal from the judgment of dismissal, and contends that the court erred in sustaining the demurrer.

The petition shows that since May, 1889, the city of San Diego lias been a municipal corporation by virtue of a charter generally known as a “ freeholders’ charter”; that from the date of the organization of the corporation until June 1, 1891, the petitioner held the office of chief of police; that by section 1 of chapter 9, article 3, of the city charter, the salary of the chief of police was fixed at eighteen hundred dollars per annum; that for the last four months of his official term, viz., February, March, April, and May, 1891, petitioner had been paid for salary only one hundred dollars per month, by reason of an ordinance of the city adopted January 31, 1891, by which the salary of chief of police was reduced to…