Gaspard v. Edwin M. LeBaron, Inc.

[357]

SHINN, P. J.

This is an action to quiet title to a strip of land approximately 982 feet in length and 18 feet in width which extends along the top of a ridge that was subdivided into lots prior to 1911. The defendants are a few of a great number of owners of lots in the subdivision. The judgment declares that plaintiffs are not the owners or entitled to exclusive possession of the land, but that the same is, and for many years has been, a public road. Plaintiffs appeal.

The property is described as Lot E, Block 3, of Tract 1146, in the city of Los Angeles. A subdivision map of Tract 1146 was filed in the recorder’s office in 1911. It embraced only a part of a large tract that had previously been subdivided according to a recorded map. The lot lines of Tract 1146 conform to those shown on the earlier map. Tract 1146 contains 73 numbered lots. In addition to the numbered lots the map designated certain areas by letter, as Lots C, D and E. While only Lot E is here involved, the purpose and plan of the sub-dividers were expressed in the delineation of the areas, Lots C and D, as well as Lot E. It will assist in an understanding of the map to visualize Lots E and C as alleys reaching the rear boundaries of all the lots, and Lot D as a road extending around the boundaries of part of the tract that did not face upon existing streets.

At the time Tract 1146 was laid out, San Rafael Avenue was an existing street extending across the southerly boundary of the tract from Ocean View Avenue, the southwest corner of the tract, and northerly along the easterly boundary for a comparatively short distance. It furnished a means of access to the front of 17 lots. Ocean View Avenue was an existing street which formed the westerly boundary of 34 lots. Along the easterly and northerly sides of the tract from the point where San Rafael Avenue ended, to the northerly end of Ocean View Avenue, there were 24 lots which did not face on any street. Lot D, 42 to 52 feet or more in width, was delineated upon the map as the front boundary line of these 24 lots. If it was not intended to be a road, there would have been no means of access to the front lines of 24 of the lots. Lot E, as laid out, was approximately 18 feet wide and 982 feet long. It extended from San Rafael Avenue on the east approximately half way across the subdivision; thence it extended southerly, and had certain east and west laterals. The entire Lot E, with its laterals, formed the rear boundary lines of 26 of the lots. At its southerly terminus there was a