Blood

The County Government Act, as revised in 1893, provides that the county board of supervisors have jurisdiction and power to grant licenses and franchises for taking tolls on public roads or highways "whenever, in their judgment, the expenses necessary to operate or maintain such public roads or highways as free public highways is too great to justify the county in so operating or maintaining them”; the licensee being required to keep the road in reasonable repair. (Stats. 1893, p. 359.) The controlling question in this case is whether such provision conflicts with the constitution of the state.

The board of supervisors of Calaveras county, acting professedly under said statute, on July 3, 1893, passed an ordinance granting to the plaintiff, Blood, license to take tolls at rates prescribed in the ordinance for the term of one year on a certain public highway in said county known as the “ Big Tree and Carson Valley Toll Road,” the expense necessary to maintain said public road as a free public highway being, in the judgment of the board, too great to justify the county in so maintaining it. Blood took possession of the road, and assumed the right to collect the tolls thereon fixed…