Whitworth v. Fernandez

PRESTON, J.

This is an action by plaintiffs under section 749 of the Code of Civil Procedure to determine adverse claims to what is known as lot 13 of the Whitworth tract, county of Los Angeles. The real dispute centers around the easterly 42.1 feet of said lot 13.

It appears that on the twentieth day of January, 1883, and for some time prior thereto, one Christopher Greve was the owner of a tract of land situated in the westerly portion of what is officially known as lot 1 of the Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas, lying north of Eberle Road, now known as Pico Road; that on the twentieth day of January, 1883, said Greve granted to Joseph Whitworth the westerly portion of said subdivision of said lot 1, described as follows: “Beginning at the Southwest comer of the land now owned by Jas. A. Whitworth and being one of the corners of Lot number Two (2) of the Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas as recorded on Page 572 Book One (1) of the Miscellaneous Records of Los Angeles County; thence following the North line of Lot number Two (2) East 6.76 chains; thence South 4.52 chains to the North side of County road; thence North 76°, 54' W. along North side of County road 7.94 chains to a stake, thence N. 2° 21 East 4.48 chains to the place of beginning, Containing Three (3) acres of land more or less.”

This conveyance made the easterly line of the Whitworth purchase the westerly line of said grantor Greve. Within a very short time after said purchase the two neighbors built through their joint efforts a fence along said line between their properties and also planted along the fence a row of eucalypti, both of which landmarks have remained for the past forty-odd years. Whitworth used the fence as a portion of the inclosure of the tract of land purchased by him and continuously since said purchase he and his successors in interest have cultivated and enjoyed the whole of said tract of land to said fence line without hindrance of any kind from said Greve and his successors in interest or anyone else except as hereinafter stated. Likewise, said Whitworth and his successors in interest have for more

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than twenty years last past had said strip of land here in dispute set to walnut trees.

About the year 1910 said grantor Greve caused the remaining portion of his land in that vicinity, to wit, 16.22 acres, to be known as a portion of tract 470 and a map thereof to be duly and officially filed. Later, about 1911, the successors in interest of said Whitworth, who had died in 1904, caused to be made and filed .a map and plat of the property conveyed by said deed of 1883 and other lands and caused the same to be officially known on the records of Los Angeles County as the Whitworth tract. The strip of land here in dispute is, as above stated, the easterly 42.1 feet of said lot 13 of said Whitworth tract. These families were friends during their residence on these tracts and apparently the friendship between them still obtains, notwithstanding the acts and conduct of the defendant Michael M. Fernandez.