Widber

The Pacific Undertakers, a- corporation, filed a petition in the superior court for a writ of mandate commanding A. 0. Widber, treasurer of the city and county of San Francisco, to pay certain demands against said city and county amounting to eighty-three dollars and three cents, which had been regularly allowed and audited. The prayer of the petition was granted, and Widber appeals.

The demands were presented to the treasurer on June 26, 1893, and were for services rendered in burying indigent dead during the months of April and May, 1893; but the general fund of the treasury was entirely exhausted, and there was no money of the fiscal year ending June 30,1893, to pay said demands, and there has not since been any money of said fiscal year to pay the said demands. However, since the first day of July, 1893, there has been, and at the time of the filing of the petition there was, sufficient money of the income and revenue of subsequent fiscal years with which to pay said demands.

Respondent contends that the nature and character of the demands here sought to be enforced exempt them from the operation of the provision of section 18, article XI, of the state constitution, that no…