South Shore Land Co. v. Petersen

AGEE, J.

Defendants appeal from a judgment quieting title in plaintiff to six tideland lots lying south of and substantially adjacent to the line of ordinary high tide of San Francisco Bay where it abuts the southern shore line of the City of Alameda.

In 1871 these lots were sold at public sale pursuant to a statute enacted shortly prior thereto. (Stats. 1867-1868, p. 716 et seq., as supplemented by Stats, 1869-1870, p. 541 et seq.)

The first deed in respondent’s chain of title to each of the six lots is a deed thereof from the Board of Tide Land Commissioners of the State of California to the purchaser or purchasers at such sale. Subsequent deeds introduced in evidence show a complete and unbroken chain of title to the six lots to be in respondent.

All of these deeds describe the northern boundary of each of the lots as the line of ordinary high tide of San Francisco Bay. However, in order to eliminate minor disputes as to the exact location on the ground of such tide line, the judgment adopts a line which in some instances is below or to the south

[630]

of the line of ordinary high tide but which

never

extends above or to the north of said tide line.

The basis of appellants’ claim of interest in the tidelands of the “Island of Alameda,” upon which the City of Alameda is situated, is the same as that related in

Petersen

v.

United States,

327 F.2d 219 (January 17, 1964) and need not be repeated in this opinion. The appellants are the same in both actions. The reclaimed land involved in the other action is part of the Alameda Naval Air Station and is west of the land involved herein.

For the same reasons as set forth by the United States Court of Appeals in the cited decision, we conclude that the United States patent issued to Antonio Peralta in 1874, rather than the Spanish grant of 1820 issued to his father, Don Luis Peralta, is “the title deed from which any subsequent owner had to trace his ownership” and that this patent “plainly and unambiguously excluded from its coverage any land covered by the waters of the bay.”