Roberts v. Brae

WASTE, C. J.

In this action to quiet title the plaintiff appeals from a judgment granting such relief to the defendants in conformity with the allegations and prayer of their respective cross-complaints.

Plaintiff claims to be the record owner of lots 4 and 5 in block 9 of the town site of Diamond Springs, El Dorado County. The defendants are adjoining owners, being, respectively, the record owners of lots 3 and 6. In other words, the defendant Scheiber owns a lot that adjoins plaintiff’s lot 4, and the defendant Brae owns a lot adjoining plaintiff’s lot 5. This action is the result of a dispute over the location of the boundary lines separating the three ownerships.

Plaintiff’s proof, offered subsequent to defendants’ proof in support of their cross-complaints, consisted principally of a showing of record title to lots 4 and 5 as described in the official map of Diamond Springs and the field notes of the original survey. The evidence discloses, however, that the original map has been destroyed by fire and was not available upon the trial and that the field notes, which lay out the lots in each block with reference to ill-defined surrounding streets, fail to disclose the relation of said lots or blocks to other monuments or property and cannot be located on the ground. Plaintiff testified that she had a survey made, but she failed to offer any evidence tending to establish the location of any of the parcels of property involved.

The defendants have always admitted that plaintiff is the record owner of lots 4 and 5, excepting therefrom any por

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tion thereof within the boundaries of certain metes and bounds descriptions, to which they assert ownership. Defendants introduced in evidence deeds showing record title in them to lots 3 and 6 and established their payment of taxes for more than five years upon lands respectively assessed to them as lots 3 and 6. They also introduced a survey made at their request showing boundaries of the present occupancies. The testimony of the surveyor reveals the impossibility of reconciling the official field notes with the boundaries of such present occupancies. In addition, the defendants testified that the old stone buildings located on lots 3 and 6, and asserted to encroach on plaintiff’s property, have been in their present positions for more than thirty-eight years and thirty-five years, respectively. The defendant Scheiber, owner of lot 3, testified that she had moved there thirty-eight years previously ; that she was a native of the locality and had known of the buildings all of her life; that at one time there was fastened to the top of the building on lot 3 a stone monument reading, “L. Lepitt 1857”, tending to indicate construction in that year; and that plaintiff had been the owner of lots 4 and 5 since 1923, approximately ten years prior to the commencement of this action, and had been in possession, as tenant, before that time. Defendant Brae testified that while she had purchased lot 6 in 1920, she had lived there about thirty-five years and “the stone building occupied the same position then as it does now”. The surveyor called by defendants testified that the buildings were very old, one at least fifty years old. The trial judge viewed the premises. Upon the conclusion of the trial it was found that the defendants were the owners and in possession of the properties described by metes and bounds in their respective cross-complaints and that plaintiff was the owner and in possession of the property lying between said parcels.