40 Cal. 33 | Cal. | 1870
delivered tbe opinion of tbe Court, Sprague, J., and Bhodes, C. J., concurring:
Tbe appeal in tbis case is from an order refusing to dissolve an injunction obtained by tbe plaintiffs against tbe defendants, Coon, Washington and Bullock, as Tide Land Commissioners, appointed under tbe Act of Marcb 30, 1868, and tbe defendants, Haigbt, McCoppin and Otis, composing tbe State Board, organized under said Act, enjoining tbe said defendants, and tbe Southern Pacific Bailroad Company, and tbe Western Pacific Bailroad Company, wbicb are also made defendants, from selling or advertising to sell at auction or otherwise, and from assigning, transferring or conveying to said railroad companies, or any other corporation or person, and from permitting or allowing said companies, or any other corporation or person, to take possession of certain tide and salt marsh lands, situate in tbe city and county of San Francisco, below high water mark in tbe bay of San Francisco.
Tbe injunction also prohibits tbe defendants from doing any act or taking any steps to aid or assist said companies, or any other corporation or person, to procure, or meddle, or interfere with, or acquire tbe title to, or possession of, or any interest in, said lands in hostility to tbe title or possession of tbe plaintiffs, or in derogation of their rights. Tbe motion to dissolve tbe injunction was
Tbe complaint then avers tbat tbe Tide Land Commissioners, under tbe pretest tbat those tide and marsh lands belong to tbe State, have proceeded to have them surveyed and laid out in lots, blocks and streets, and threaten to sell tbe same, or portions thereof, at auction, and to assign to said railroad companies other portions thereof, under said Act of March 30,1868, and tbat said companies threatened to take possession of the lands so awarded to them, in disregard of the rights of the plaintiffs.
It is not pretended on behalf of the plaintiffs that, by virtue of'the location under Act of April 20, 1862 (Stats. 1852, p. 158) “prescribing the mode of maintaining and defending possessory actions on public lands in this State,” Far-rington & Ludlum acquired a title to tbe land which they could assert against this State or the United States. It is apparent, not less from the title of the Act than from all its provisions, tbat its only purpose was to prescribe a method not for acquiring title, but to protect the occupant in the temporary possession of a limited portion of tbe public land. This is too plain to justify discussion or the citation of authorities. Nor is it claimed tbat the plaintiffs, their predecessors, or grantors, acquired title, eo nomine, to the marsh lands covered by the ebb and flow of the tide, by virtue of the location of the school land warrants. The Act of May 3, 1852 ( Stats. 1852, p. 41), under the provisions of which the warrants were issued, defines its purpose in its title: “An Act to provide for the disposal of the five hundred thousand acres of land granted to this State by Act of Congress, that the people of the State of California may avail themselves of the benefit of the eighth section of the Act of Congress, approved April 4, 1841, Chapter NYL, entitled an Act to appropriate the proceeds of the sales of the public lands and to grant pre-emption rights, tbe following provisions are hereby enacted.” The third section of tbe Act authorizes tbe warrants to be located “upon any vacant and unappro
Nor is the State estopped from asserting title to these lands by the fact that the purchase money for the warrants was paid into the State treasury, and has never been refunded or offered to be refunded. When the predecessors of the plaintiffs purchased the warrants, they knew, or were bound in law to know, that they could only be located on lands belonging to the United States. The warrants were sold to them by the State for that express purpose and no other, and there was no covenant, express or implied, that if, ,.
The complaint, amongst other matters, avers that “no part of said lands below high water mark, or marsh lands, so claimed by the plaintiffs or either of them, belongs to' the State of California, or did belong to said State on the 30th March, 1868,” the date of the Act from which the Tide Land Commissioners derive their authority in the premises. The Act authorizes the Commissioners to deal only with tide lands 'belonging to the State; and it is claimed on behalf of the plaintiffs, that, inasmuch as these lands did not, at the passage of the Act, and do not now, belong to the State, and are alleged to be in the actual possession of the plaintiffs, the defendants should be, and were, properly enjoined from intermeddling with them.
But the allegation that the lands do not, and at the date
The complaint in this case is a bill in equity; and in determining its legal effect we must look at the whole complaint, which admits the lands in contest to be tide lands, and which are therefore prima facie subject to the control of the Legislature. If it has lost the right and power to control them, the complaint should have stated specifically by what method, if otherwise than is particularly stated.
' The only remaining question is that arising under the ■ Statute of Limitations, the third section of which is in the following words: “The people of this State will not sue any person for or in respect to any real property, or the issues or profits thereof, by reason of the right or title of the people to the same, unless: first, such right or title shall have accrued within ten years before any action or other proceeding for the same shall be commenced; or unless, second, the people, or those from whom they claim, shall have received the rents or profits of such real property, or of some part thereof, within the space of ten years.’"
The complaint alleges that the plaintiffs and their predecessors have been in the bona fide, actual, continued, peaceable and undisturbed possession of the land for more than ten years, holding and claiming the same adversely to the State; and that no right or title had accrued to the State during said period; and that during all said period neither the State or the people thereof, or those from whom they claim, had received the rents and profits of said lands, or any part thereof. Lor the plaintiffs it is insisted that these averments bring the case fully and fairly within the third section of the Act, and that the title of the State is, therefore, barred. It is further claimed, on the authority of Arrington v. Liscom (34 Cal., 365), that the effect of the statutory bar is to divest the title of the State and wholly
As already stated, in construing a bill in equity, we must look at all its allegations, and are not at liberty, to treat an isolated sentence, separated from its context and from other portions of tbe complaint, as an independent averment, unless it satisfactorily appears to bave been so intended by tbe pleader. In tbe preceding portions of tbe complaint there is a detailed narrative of tbe circumstances under which tbe plaintiffs and their predecessors entered upon tbe land. It distinctly appears that tbe entry was made, first under tbe Possessory Act; and second, under tbe location of school land warrants. Tbe complaint so states, and tbe plaintiffs are bound by this admission. There is an averment, it was true, that as to a portion of tbe land, one "Weir bad a brickyard upon it and depastured bis horses on tbe adjoining lands; and that Farrington & Ludlum, who succeeded to bis rights, took up this portion under tbe Possessory Act as a part of tbe public lands of tbe United States, and inclosed and occupied tbe same. But it further appears that Farrington & Ludlum, and others who became associated with them, afterwards located school land warrants on tbe whole of this tract, and thenceforth claimed and occupied under such location. In respect to such portions of tbe lands in contest as were originally claimed by Pearson, to whose rights, it is alleged, tbe plaintiffs bave succeeded, it is not pretended that Pearson ever bad or claimed any title or possession, except under and by virtue of tbe location of school land warrants. It appears, therefore, that all tbe lands in contest were located under school land warrants, and baAre been held and occupied by tbe plaintiffs, and, as they allege, are yet held and occupied by them by virtue of such location. Such a bolding and occupation is not adverse to tbe title of tbe State; on tbe contrary, it admits tbe title to be in tbe State, and tbe precise and only object of locating such warrants on public lands is, that tbe locator may
But it may be urged on behalf of the plaintiffs, that in respect to these tide lands the State claims, and it has already been assumed in this opinion, that inasmuch as the warrants 'could not be lawfully located on tide lands, the relation of vendor and vendee did not exist between the State and the plaintiffs, or their predecessors. But this does not obviate the difficulty. 1 The State sold the warrants to the predecessors of the plaintiffs on the express agreement that they were to be located on public lands of the United States, and on no other lands. Instead of this, however, the warrants were located, in violation of the agreement, on tide lands not subject to such location. It is strictly analagous
In my opinion, the order refusing to dissolve the injunction ought to be reversed, and the District Court should be directed to enter an order dissolving the injunction, and it is so ordered.