Arnold v. Hanson

ADAMS, P. J.

This is an appeal by defendants from a judgment quieting plaintiffs’ title to Lots 19 and 20, Block 1,

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of Clear Lake Highlands Club House addition in Lake County, which judgment also ordered defendants to restore to its original position the line fence between Lots 20 and 21, which fence had been constructed by plaintiffs and moved by defendants; and further awarded plaintiffs damages in the sum of $200 caused by the acts of defendants in cutting down plaintiffs’ berry bushes and a tree, and moving the fence.

The controversy involves the location of the boundary line between Lots 20 and 21. In April, 1924, Clear Lake Highlands, Incorporated, owned a large tract of land on or near the shore of Clear Lake which it surveyed and subdivided into numerous lots and blocks. The survey was made by D. R Morgan, a licensed surveyor, assisted by Carol Hale as transit man; and thereafter a plat of the survey showing lots, blocks and streets, which plat had been made by surveyor Morgan, was approved by the board of supervisors and filed for record July 25, 1924. The lots in question, namely, Lots 19, 20 and 21, face Hambaugh Avenue, sometimes called Lake Shore Drive, on the east, while the west ends of the lots are covered by the water of Clear Lake. As shown on the plat, Lots 4 to 26, inclusive, are 50 feet in width and rectangular in shape.

When the tract was surveyed into lots in April, 1924, wooden stakes were driven into the ground to mark their corners and side lines. In 1931, Carol Hale, with John T. LaBree who was or had been vice-president of Clear Lake Highlands, Incorporated, subdivider of the tract, and was then owner of Lots 19 and 20, located the original wooden stakes, most of which were still in place, and beside them drove into the ground three-quarter-inch iron pipe stakes about 30 inches long.

In 1937, Mr. LaBree and his wife contracted with plaintiffs for the purchase of Lots 19 and 20, and when the parties were negotiating for such sale Mr. LaBree showed the iron stakes to Mr. Arnold who accepted such stakes as marking the boundaries of the lots. They went into possession in 1937, built a house upon Lot 20, erected a fence along the south line for a distance of approximately 81 feet from Hambaugh Avenue, planted berry bushes and a tree near the fence, and later placed a stone wall along the remaining portion of the south boundary of the lot extending toward the lake. Plaintiffs completed the purchase and obtained a deed of conveyance in 1943.