Calnev Pipe Line Co. v. City of Colton

This appeal involves an attack upon the validity of annexation proceedings conducted by the City of Colton and known as West Colton Annexation No. 16. The decision in a companion case, City of Colton v. City of Rialto, ante, p. 174 [ 40 Cal.Rptr. 766 ] 4 Civil No. 7176, is filed concurrently herewith.

Briefly stated, we have found that the Rialto Annexation No. 52 was unlawful in its inception, that a majority protest had been filed in its annexation and that ordinance No. 457 which purported to approve said annexation was invalidly adopted and was void. Therefore, the City of Colton was not precluded from conducting its annexation proceedings.

In addition to the contentions raised by the City of Rialto in 4 Civil No. 7176, appellant contends that the judgment in the present case must be reversed because it was denied a fair hearing before the Colton City Council and because the protest statute, Government Code section 35313, 1 is unconstitutional as applied to the facts in controversy.

The case was tried on stipulated facts and documents. The case involves uninhabited territory lying between and contiguous to the Cities of Rialto and Colton. Rialto had con *186 ducted…