California Pastoral & Agricultural Co. v. Whitson

CHIPMAN, C.

Mandamus.

The plaintiff asks the peremptory writ of the superior court of Fresno county commanding defendant, as treasurer of said county, to pay plaintiff, as the owner of all the lands in reclamation district No. 647, the amounts found to be due it out of the moneys in his hands to the credit of the swamp land fund of said county. Defendant demurred to the complaint for insufficiency of facts. The court overruled the demurrer, and, defendant declining to answer, gave judgment for plaintiff, from which defendant appeals. The following is a brief statement of facts set forth in the petition: Prior to January, 1893, the lands described in plaintiff’s complaint were in Fresno county, and were sold by the state to certain purchasers and patents issued to the

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purchasers therefor. All the .money paid for said lands as the purchase price thereof was paid into the county treasury of said Fresno county, and amounts to the sum of five thousand two hundred and sixty-six dollars and sixty-four cents. The plaintiff herein became, and is, the successor in interest of said purchasers, and is now and ever since the first day of July, 1893, has been the owner in fee of all of said lands. On or about 'the first day of July, 1893, Madera county was formed out of certain portions of Fresno county, including all of said lands, under an act of the legislature providing for a division of Fresno county and the creation of Madera from part of Fresno county.

About the twenty-sixth day of April, 1895, said lands were foriped into a reclamation district and numbered 647, upon petition of plaintiff therefor to the board of supervisors for said Madera county.

On the third day of September, 1895, said plaintiff made satisfactory proof before the board of supervisors of Madera county that it had expended over two dollars per acre in reclamation of said lands; and said board of supervisors of said Madera county duly certified said facts to the register of the state land office, whereupon said register transmitted to the treasurer of Fresno county a statement showing the amount paid by said purchasers upon said lands, including interest. There is no amount chargeable against the land in said district by reason of moneys drawn from the swamp land fund of said county except the sum of thirteen hundred and twenty dollars and ninety-five cents, and there is sufficient money in the said fund with which to pay the amount claimed.