Summary
In Gauld v. Board of Supervisors, an application had been made to the board of supervisors for a telephone franchise, and certain proceedings had been taken under the statute toward the granting of such franchise, but none had been granted.
Summary of this case from Holabird v. Railroad Commission of State of CaliforniaOpinion
Department One
APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of the City and County of San Francisco, sustaining a demurrer to an application for a writ of review. J. M. Seawell, Judge.
COUNSEL:
Woods & Levinsky, for Appellant.
Harry T. Creswell, City and County Attorney, for Respondent Board of Supervisors.
Robert A. Friedrich, and Crittenden & Van Wyck, for Respondent, People's Mutual Telephone Company.
JUDGES: Garoutte, J. Harrison, J., and Van Fleet, J., concurred.
OPINION
GAROUTTE, Judge
[54 P. 273] The present litigation was inaugurated upon application for a writ of review to annul the proceedings of the board of supervisors of the city and county of San Francisco, looking toward the future granting of a franchise for the conduct of the telephone business. A demurrer was sustained to the petition of Gauld, and the case is now before the court upon the sufficiency of the facts set forth in that petition to justify the issuance of the writ. The sufficiency of the petition is attacked from many points, and we need notice but a single one. At the time this proceeding was inaugurated no franchise had been granted by the board of supervisors. The matter was in fieri. No final action of the board had been had, and for this reason certiorari was not the remedy. The office of this writ is in no sense that of a restraining order. It is not the purpose of the writ to restrain or prohibit, but to annul. And until the proceedings of the inferior tribunal or board have culminated in a final order there is nothing to annul. Conceding, for present purposes only, that the writ of review would lie to annul an order of the board of supervisors granting a franchise, we have no such case here, for no franchise had been granted when the application was filed, and it necessarily follows the application for the writ is premature. There is an abundance of authority in this state supporting these views. (Wilson v. Board of Supervisors , 3 Cal. 386; People v. County Judge , 40 Cal. 480; Lamb v. Schottler , 54 Cal. 321; Sayers v. Superior Court , 84 Cal. 645.)
For the foregoing reasons the judgment is affirmed.