Woodward

This is a controversy submitted to the court below upon an agreed statement of facts, as provided for by section 1138 of the Code of Civil Procedure. Judgment was rendered in favor of the sanitary district, and Woodward appeals.

The proceeding was initiated by F. J. Woodward, a taxpayer within the Fruitvale Sanitary District, to test the validity of the organization of such district, and the legality of certain bonds issued by the sanitary board, as well as the validity of a tax levied by said sanitary board upon property in said district.

The Fruitvale Sanitary District was organized under and pursuant to an act of the legislature of the state of California, approved March 31, 1891, entitled, “An act to provide for the formation, government, operation, and dissolution of sanitary districts in any part of the state for the construction of sewers and other sanitary purposes,” etc. (Stats. 1891, p. 223.)

The first point made by appellant is that the petition for the formation of the district is defective in this: 1. That the petition “ does not state distinctly the desire of the petitioners to form a district, nor what the name of the district is to be.” 2. That while the…