Hermance v. Blackburn

CUBTIS, J.

This action concerns a dispute as to the boundary line between lots 28 and 30 in block 72 of the city of Burbank, in the county of Los Angeles. The plaintiffs are the owners of said lot 30 and the defendants of said lot 28. The lots face easterly on Tajunga Avenue and are situated between Tenth and Eleventh Streets of

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said city. T'ajnnga Avenue runs in a northerly and southerly direction, and plaintiffs’ lot is located to the south of and adjoining defendants’ said lot. The claim of plaintiffs, as made by the pleadings, is that the defendants have encroached upon plaintiffs’ lot to the extent of 1.87 feet. The evidence, plaintiffs contend, shows an encroachment of 1.85 feet. Defendants in their pleadings denied that they had encroached upon plaintiffs’ lot to any extent whatever. The court found in favor of the defendants and entered judgment accordingly, from which the plaintiffs have appealed upon a bill of exceptions.

The specific charge of the plaintiffs is that the defendants constructed a dwelling-house on said lot 28, and as a part of said house the defendants erected an ornamental arch and its supports; the northerly end of said arch joins and unites with said dwelling-house, and the arch thence extends from said dwelling-house southerly over to and beyond the boundary line of said lot 30 and is supported at its southerly end by a pillar which forms a part of said arch, and that said arch and the southerly pillar supporting the same extends over and on plaintiffs’ said lot 28 to the extent of 1.87 feet. For the purpose of proving these allegations the plaintiffs called three witnesses, all of them surveyors or engineers. Their evidence tended to show that the original survey of the city of Burbank was made in 1887. In 1911 the witness Edward M. Lynch, who was then city engineer of said city, made what he called a center line survey “for the purpose of locating the center lines of the various streets of said city, preparatory to the city entering upon a plan of street improvement.” At that time a number of the streets were not open, but were covered with brush. Upon locating the intersections of the center lines of two streets this witness testified that he drove 2x2 stakes at the intersecting points of the center lines, which he buried all the way from one to two feet underground, depending upon the character of the ground, so as to preserve those particular points for future use. Two years later cement curbs were put in, running from First Street to Tenth Street, and while the cement was still fresh he drove nails into it, one at each of the four corners at street intersections, and these nails served as “monuments” or “wit