Kern County Land Co. v. Nighbert

LANGDON, P. J.

This appeal is by the defendant from a judgment denying his claim of ownership to certain real property situated in Kern County, California.

The plaintiff brought an action to quiet its title to the land in controversy and named Thomas Sanders and unknown persons claiming any interest therein, as defendants. The complaint alleged that plaintiff was the owner in fee and entitled to the possession and seised and possessed of the land described therein, and also alleged that for more than twenty years prior to the commencement of the action plaintiff had been in the actual, exclusive, continuous, and adverse possession of the property, holding the same and claiming to hold the same in fee adversely against all the world, and had paid all taxes assessed against said property during said period.

Appellant filed an answer denying specifically the allegations of the complaint and setting forth that on October 30, 1887, the land was conveyed to Thomas Sanders by United

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States patent, duly recorded; that Sanders remained the owner thereof until April 27, 1920, when he conveyed his interest to defendant Nighbert, who has since been the owner thereof, and asked that he be substituted in the place of Sanders, as a defendant and that his title be quieted against plaintiff.

Sanders filed a disclaimer of any interest in the land and Nighbert was substituted as a defendant.

The court found that the land was granted to Thomas Sanders in 1877 by United States patent and said patent was recorded at the request of J. B. Haggin in the office of the county recorder in April, 1883; that the land was never assessed upon the county assessment-roll to said Sanders, but from the date of the recordation of the patent until 1898 it was assessed to Haggin, during which time he paid the taxes thereon; that Haggin was one of the organizers and officers of the plaintiff company and about the year 1898 executed a deed conveying said land to plaintiff, together with other parcels; since said time the land has been assessed to plaintiff and the taxes thereon paid by it; that said land is not susceptible of irrigation, except from rainfall or wells which might be drilled thereon; that it is undeveloped and unimproved; that from 1906 to the time of the commencement of this action, the land was used for grazing and pasturage by Miller & Lux, Incorporated, under an oral agreement therefor made with the plaintiff; that no other use was made of the land; that in November, 1915, a notice of the pendency of this action was duly recorded; that in April, 1920, Thomas Sanders and his wife executed a quitclaim deed to Nighbert, conveying all their right, title, and interest in the land; that prior to the execution of said deed Sanders had never seen or occupied said land nor paid any taxes thereon, nor had the land ever been assessed to him; that at the time of the execution of said deed Sanders did not own nor claim to own said land nor any interest therein.