People v. Ahern
California Supreme Court
Appeal from the District Court, Sixth Judicial District, City and County of Sacramento. Action commenced pn the 27th day of March, 1874, to recover an assessment levied on a tract of swamp and overflowed land on Sherman Island, County of Sacramento, in Swamp Land District No. 50. The district was organized in 1865, under the Act of April 2nd, 1866. (Statutes 1865-66, p. 799.) All the papers connected with the district were by the State Board of Swamp Land Commissioners…
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Appeal from the District Court, Sixth Judicial District, City and County of Sacramento. Action commenced pn the 27th day of March, 1874, to recover an assessment levied on a tract of swamp and overflowed land on Sherman Island, County of Sacramento, in Swamp Land District No. 50. The district was organized in 1865, under the Act of April 2nd, 1866. (Statutes 1865-66, p. 799.) All the papers connected with the district were by the State Board of Swamp Land Commissioners transferred to the Board of Supervisors of the County of Sacramento. Said Board of Supervisors in July, 1866, organized as a…
1Opinion of the Court
No view at all was had of the lands by any of the Commissioners, and the three never met together for its approval. To call such a thing an “ assessment ” would be a perversion of the language ; and for the Legislature to attempt to legalize it would be an unwarrantable assumption of power, such as no reported case has yet been found to uphold. Retroactive legislation can only be sustained in aid of justice and right—never in aid of injustice and fraud. ( Conway v. Cable, 37 Bl. 82; White Mountain R. R. Co. v. White M. R. R. Co. of N. H. 50 N. H. 50; Cooley on Const. Lim. 379; People v.…
2Cases cited3 opinions
- People v. GoldtreeCalifornia Supreme Court · 1872
- People v. CoghillCalifornia Supreme Court · 1874
- People v. HagarCalifornia Supreme Court · 1874
3Cited by2 opinions
- Lower Kings River Reclamation District, No. 531 v. PhillipsCalifornia Supreme Court · 1895
- Swamp Land District No. 307 v. GwynnCalifornia Supreme Court · 1886