Keiper v. Dunn

SEAWELL, J.

Plaintiff appeals from a judgment for defendants in an action to quiet title. Plaintiff, John S. Keiper, and one Chauncey H. Dunn, at the time of his death, were the owners of adjoining lots in the city of Sacramento. Defendants are the executrix and executors of the will of said Dunn and other persons who assert an interest in the

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property under him. The action involves a dispute as to the location of the boundary line between said two lots.

The block in which said lots are located is bounded on the west by Fourteenth Street, on the north by J Street, on the east by Fifteenth Street and on the south by K Street. Said block is cut by an alley, which runs approximately through the center of the block from Fourteenth to Fifteenth Street. The sections of the block on each side of the alley were originally divided into four lots, with an approximate frontage of 80 feet each. Lot 8, which constitutes a portion of the estate of said Chauncey H. Dunn, deceased, is situate at the southwest corner of said block, and lot 7, the western portion of which is owned by plaintiff, adjoins it on the east side. Both lots extend back to the alley.

Plaintiff claims that the boundary line delineated on the map prepared by one Bassett from a survey made by him as city surveyor in 1878 is the true division line between said lots 7 and 8. For many years a board fence lay to the east of said division line indicated on the Bassett map, distant therefrom, according to the testimony of the witness Rooney, 1.97 feet at the line of K Street and 1.4 feet at the alley. The contention of defendants, upheld by the court below, is that the line established by an official survey of 1854, with reference to which sections of the city were laid out, is controlling and that the line of said fence, rather than the line indicated on the Bassett map, is the boundary established by said survey of 1854. The dispute concerns the strip of land between the boundary line of lots 7 and 8 as indicated on the Bassett map and the line to the east thereof, which for many years was marked by said wooden fence.

A three-story building, occupied by defendant Heald’s Business College under lease, is situate on lot 8 and extends beyond the boundary line indicated on the Bassett map to the fence line at the alley and to within a few inches thereof at K Street. It does not appear that plaintiff or his predecessors ever occupied said strip of land in any manner.