In County of San Luis Obispo v. Gage (1903) 139 Cal. 398, the Supreme Court considered whether a law providing for payment of specified sums annually toward the maintenance of each orphan, half-orphan, or abandoned child supported by a political subdivision of the state created a contractual relation between the state and the local entity. The court concluded that it did. "It must be conceded upon principle that the obligation here in controversy is an obligation arising upon a contract. The state . . . in effect promised to each county in the state that if it should thereafter maintain and support persons of a class mentioned in the act, the state would appropriate and pay to such county the sums of money therein stated. This was the equivalent of an offer upon condition, and upon the performance of the condition by any county the offer became a promise, and binding as such upon the state . . . . It may be conceded that there may be other obligations arising by operation of law which do not also come within the class of obligations arising from contract; but it must also be admitted that there are obligations which, in a certain sense, arise from the operation of law, and at the same time are in substance and effect contracts. The obligation here in question comes within this latter class. It arises from the operation of the act of 1880. The act itself, coupled with the subsequent performance of the conditions by the respondent, furnishes all the elements which are necessary to the formation and existence of an implied contract." ( Id., at pp. 407-408.)