38 Cal. 397 | Cal. | 1869
This is an appeal from the judgment, and is now presented for review upon the judgment roll alone. The case was tried by the Court, without a jury, upon an agreed statement of facts prepared by the parties, and filed on the 8th.day of February, 1867, upon which statement of facts, and tho pleadings, on the same day, the cause was argued before tho Court by the attorneys of the respective parties, and submitted. The Court taking the same under advisement, thereafter, on the 19th day of November, 1867, judgment was rendered and entered therein in favor of defendant and, against the plaintiffs.
The action is brought under the 254th Section of the Practice Act, to quiet the plaintiffs’ title as against adverse claim of title by defendant.
Regarding the agreed statement of facts as special findings, the question presented by the record is, whether, such facts sustain the judgment, or are inconsistent therewith.
From the pleadings and agreed statement, it appears that the village of Petaluma was located and settled upon public lands of the United States prior to September, 1854; that in September, 1854, one Columbus Tusten laid out and
Upon the foregoing facts, the question arises whether plaintiffs, at the time of the commencement of this suit, were vested with such an interest in the premises described in their complaint, as entitled them to pre-empt and purchase the same from the United States, as against defendant’s attempted appropriation thereof to its use as a public plaza, under and by virtue of the Act of Congress of July 1, 1864, and the supplementary Act of March 3, 1865. (U. S. Stats, at Large, Vol. XIII, pp. 343-529.) The second section of the-Act of July 1, 1864, reads as follows :
‘ ‘ And be it further enacted, That in any case in which parties have already founded, or may hereafter desire to found, a city or town on the public lands, it shall and may be lawful for them to cause to be filed with the Recorder for the county in which the same is situated, a plat thereof, for not exceeding six hundred and forty acres, describing its exterior boundaries according to the lines of the public surveys, where such surveys have been executed; also, giving the name of such city or town, and exhibiting the streets, squares, blocks, lots and alleys, the size of the same, with measurements and area of each municipal subdivision, the lots in which shall each not exceed four thousand two hundred square feet, with a statement of the extent and general character of the improvements; the said map and statement to be verified under oath by the party acting for and in behalf of the persons proposing to establish such city or town; and within one month after such filing, there shall be transmitted to the General Land Office a verified transcript of such map and statement, accompanied by the testimony of two witnesses, that such city or town has been established in good faith, and when the premises are within the limits of an organized land district, a similar map and statement shall be filed with the Register and Receiver, and at' any time after*404 filing such map, statement and testimony in the General Land Office, it shall and may be lawful for the President to cause the lots embraced within the limits of such city or town to be offered at public sale to the highest bidder, subject to a minimum of ten dollars for each lot; and such lots as may not be disposed of at public sale, shall thereafter be liable to private entry at said minimum, or at such reasonable increase or diminution thereafter as the Secretary of the Interior may order from time to time, after at least three months’ notice, in view of the increase or decrease in the value of the municipal property; provided, that any actual settler upon any one lot, as aforesaid, and upon any additional lot in which he may have substantial improvements, shall be entitled to prove up and purchase the same as a pre-emption, at said minimum price, at any time before the day fixed for the public sale.”
The supplemental Act, so far as it relates to town property, simply removes the limits fixed by the original Act for the area of towns and town lots, when a city or town existed upon the public lands prior to the passage of the Act.
These Acts were evidently designed in aid and for the benefit and relief of such persons as having settled upon the public lands, might desire to lay out and establish a town or city, including their possessions, or having already laid out and established a town or city on unoccupied public lands, and settled upon lots or municipal subdivisions within the boundaries thereof, to enable such occupants of town or city lots to procure a title thereto from the United States at a minimum price of $10, or such reasonable increase or diminution of price as the Secretary of the Interior may order, for every four thousand two hundred square feet; and, further, to provide a means by which other parties desiring to purchase lots within the limits of an established city or town upon the public lands could procure a valid title thereto. In the passage of these Acts, Congress seems to have adhered to the long established and liberal policy of the General Government toward actual settlers upon the public lands, and to have provided for the protection of the actual settler, by giving him a pre-emption right to purchase town lots upon which he had settled, not exceeding two in number.
At the date of the passage of the Act of July 1, 1864, the
The lands then embraced within the limits of the map and plat filed by the Trustees of defendant having been laid out as a town into streets, blocks and lots, settled upon, occupied and appropriated as such long before the passage of the Act of July 1, 1864, it is manifest that upon the passage of said Act, and the Act supplementary thereto of March 3, 1865, persons who, in good faith, were in the actual possession and occupation of any one or two lots, or other municipal subdivisions, with substantial improvements thereon, then actually existing or subsequently represented by a proper map, plat, etc., filed, certified and verified by parties assuming to act for the inhabitants of the town, with a view of securing the benefits and privileges contemplated by the above laws, acquired legal rights and a vested interest in such lots or municipal subdivisions, which, under the law, they had the privilege of ripening into a perfect title, and of which they could not legally be divested, except by neglect or failure on their part to avail themselves of the privileges secured by the law, or a voluntary relinquishment thereof.
From the agreed statement of facts, and the accompanying map and plat prepared, certified and filed by the Trustees of defendant, taken in connection with the legislative Act of April 12, 1858, incorporating the City of Petaluma, and defining the boundaries thereof, it is clearly manifest that that portion of the City of Petaluma southwest of Petaluma creek, with its streets, squares, blocks, lots and alleys, substantially as delineated by the map and plat filed by the Trustees of defendant on the 30th day of December, 1865, had been laid out and established as a town or city many
Congress, in the passage of these laws, had in view the individual interests of bona fide, settlers upon small parcels of public lands as well as the common interests of a community of persons, so contiguously settled as to justify the establishment of a town or city, and did not intend the Act for the especial benefit of municipal organizations or corporations; and to so construe the law as to authorize under its sanction of an appropriation of private property to public use without compensation, or an arbitrary confiscation of rights of property for the benefit of municipal associations or corporations, would be a manifest perversion of the leading object and purpose of the law.
We are of opinion, therefore, that at the date of the commencement of this suit, plaintiffs had a pre-emption right to, and such a vested right in the premises described in their complaint, as entitled them to protection against the antagonistic, fraudulent claim of right and title by defendant, and that the agreed statement of facts is inconsistent with and