City of San Pablo v. City of Richmond

Citations: 148 Cal. App. 2d 358; 306 P.2d 949; 1957 Cal. App. LEXIS 2370Docket: Civ. 17181,17182; Civ. 17183

Court: California Court of Appeal; February 8, 1957; California; State Appellate Court

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The case involves a dispute between the cities of San Pablo and Richmond over the annexation of a 10 square mile uninhabited territory. Both cities attempted to annex the same area under the Annexation of Uninhabited Territory Act of 1939, leading to several legal challenges. The appellate court consolidated three cases: two challenging the validity of Richmond's annexation and one contesting San Pablo's efforts. The trial court upheld Richmond's annexation while invalidating San Pablo's.

A key legal issue is whether a city can initiate a second annexation proceeding for the same territory before a judgment declares its first attempt invalid. The court concluded that it can. The timeline reveals that Richmond's initial annexation effort was challenged in the Pennington case, which resulted in a judgment declaring it void. Despite this, Richmond attempted a new annexation on February 1, 1955, which was deemed valid by the trial court. San Pablo's subsequent annexation attempt was ruled invalid by the same court, leading to San Pablo's appeal. San Pablo argues that Richmond lacked the authority to initiate its new annexation since the territory was already legally annexed, according to the previous judgment.

The Richmond-Fairmede annexation is claimed to be fraudulent legally, while the San Pablo-Fairmede annexation is deemed valid as it commenced after the judgment in the Pennington case. The Richmond-DeAnza Vista annexation is also argued to be invalid, which subsequently invalidates the Richmond-Fairmede annexation due to the lack of statutory contiguity between Richmond and the Fairmede area without the DeAnza annexation. San Pablo asserts that the validity of the Richmond-Fairmede annexation should be evaluated based on the facts as of February 1, 1955, arguing that the judgment in the Pennington case, which declared the annexation invalid, did not take effect until February 2, 1955. As a result, it posits that the territory had already been annexed to Richmond prior to this invalidation. 

The trial court in the Pennington case ruled the annexation null and void due to Richmond lacking jurisdiction from the start, a ruling that was affirmed. The court modified the judgment to clarify that the voided proceedings did not legally annex the territory nor grant Richmond jurisdiction over it. San Pablo contends that despite the ruling, the Pennington annexation remained effective until declared void, raising the argument that acts performed without jurisdiction are generally ineffectual. This argument is supported by cases including People v. Town of Corte Madera and Bray v. Payne, but neither case substantiates the claim that a prior invalid annexation can block subsequent attempts. The Corte Madera case emphasizes that valid prior proceedings are necessary to invalidate subsequent annexation attempts, which does not apply when the prior proceedings are deemed null and void.

In the Corte Madera case, prior proceedings were upheld, establishing that the quoted rule applies only to valid prior annexations. This principle is reinforced by Johnson v. City of San Pablo, where a void annexation did not take precedence over a subsequent valid annexation, thereby negating the appellant's arguments. The second case referenced, Bray v. Payne, involved determining the status of Barnes City, which was initially declared incorporated but later found to have a void incorporation. Despite this, the consolidation with Los Angeles was upheld, indicating that a de facto municipal corporation can participate in acts of consolidation. The ruling emphasized that a judgment declaring an incorporation void relates back to the date of incorporation, affirming that if Barnes City was not legally incorporated at that time, its status remains unchanged post-judgment. Consequently, Richmond's initiation of an annexation proceeding after a previous void one was permissible, with the standard legal principle of "first in time, first in right" applying. The Richmond-Fairmede annexation, being the first in time, took precedence over the San Pablo annexation in overlapping territories. The claim that the Richmond-Fairmede annexation is not contiguous to Richmond's limits was dismissed, as it relied on the validity of the Richmond-DeAnza annexation, which was similarly challenged but upheld. Thus, all arguments tied to this point were rejected, leading to the affirmation of the judgments. Additionally, amendments to Section 35308 and the repeal of Section 35309 of the Government Code in 1955 were noted.