Gragg v. Culp

SEAWELL, J.

An appeal from a decree rendered in favor of the plaintiffs, quieting title to 38.85 acres of land situate within township No. 17 south, range No. 2 east, M. D. M., county of Monterey.

By letters patent, June 10, 1875, the United States of America granted to Jonathan Roberts, plaintiffs’ predecessor, full payment therefor having been made by said Jonathan Roberts to the United States, grantor, lot No. 2 (27.35 acres), section 19, lot No. 6 (42.81 acres), section 29, and lot No. 1 (30.57 acres), and lot No. 2 (32.27 acres), and the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter (40 acres) of section 30, and, as enumerated in said patent, “containing 178 acres according to the official plat of the surveyor of the said lands returned to the general land office by the surveyor general.”

In February, 1900, the United States, by patent, granted to Virginia E. Ball, defendant’s predecessor, the following land: The southwest quarter of the southwest quarter (40 acres), section 29; southeast quarter of the southeast quarter (40 acres), section 29; southeast quarter of the southeast quarter (40 acres), section 30; northeast quarter of the northeast quarter (40 acres), section 31, and lot No. 5 (48.35 acres), section 29, containing in the aggregate 168.35 acres.

[581]

The township map from which the above areas and locations are taken purports to conform to the field-notes of the surveys on file in the surveyor-general’s office. It was made in 1884 and bears the certificate of the Department of the Interior, general land office, to the effect that it is a true and correct copy of the plat or survey of the lands to which it relates on file in that office. The section of the township in which the lands in controversy are situate and those adjacent thereto are mountainous, rough and precipitous. The rock formations are so abundant that the surveyors, as shown by their notes, found pit excavations, as a means of indicating section corners, to be impracticable in some places. The land, as such, is listed as being inferior in quality. The country is sharply broken with gulches, ravines, and canyons, and portions of the land are so heavy in brush as to be impenetrable. San Clemente Creek, regarded as an important natural monument, has its source in this locality, and its several branches meander a wide area of country. A few of the ancient monuments were not discoverable, but sufficient in number and position were found to make reasonably certain the location of section and quarter-section lines as originally established. It could not reasonably be expected under the circumstances of the situation that accuracy as to courses and distances, or as to the establishment of section or quarter-section monuments would mark the results of the surveyor’s efforts or that pits dug more than fifty years prior to the recent surveys would continue, in all cases, to remain open.