Ferris v. Emmons

WASTE, C. J.

The defendant appeals from a decree quieting plaintiff’s title to a strip of land seven and one-half feet wide, adjacent to the center line of block 195 of the Pomona tract, in the city of Pomona, county of Los Angeles.

Block 195 was formerly owned by the Pomona Land and Water Company, which company in the year 1886, conveyed the west half thereof to defendant’s predecessor in interest, and in the year 1888 conveyed the northeast quarter thereof to plaintiff’s predecessor in interest. The defendant, by mesne conveyances, has since come into the ownership of the northwest quarter of the block, so that now the plaintiff and defendant own, respectively, the northeast and the northwest quarters of block 195. The two deeds running in favor of the predecessors of the parties hereto were made “according to” a map of Pomona tract recorded in the year

[503]

1875, thereby incorporating the map in the description of the property conveyed. According to this map, block 195 contains forty acres, of land “measuring in every instance to the centers of the adjoining streets”. The net acreage of block 195, exclusive of the streets, is 35.46 acres. As the owner of the northeast quarter of the block, the plaintiff claims to be the owner of 8.97 acres of land, exclusive of the streets, which is slightly in excess of one-fourth of the net acreage of the block. The strip of land seven and one-half feet wide, about which this controversy centers, runs along the western boundary of plaintiff’s land, which also forms the eastern boundary of defendant’s land. If the block be considered as including the streets, plaintiff’s land will be seven and one-half feet greater .in width, and defendant’s land correspondingly smaller in width, than if the block be considered as ending at the boundary line of the streets. This is so because the streets paralleling the east and west sides of block 195 are of different widths. In finding for the plaintiff and quieting his title to the strip of land here involved, the trial court determined that block 195 extends to, and all fractional parts thereof are to be measured from, the center line of the adjoining streets.

Upon this appeal the defendant and appellant admits that the deeds under which the respective parties make claim are sufficient to convey title to the center of the adjoining streets. This being so, the sole question presented for adjudication is whether the center line, which divides block 195 into an east and a west half, is to be determined by including or excluding the streets on the east and west sides of the block. Appellant’s contention that the streets are to be excluded in fixing the division line between parcels and in ascertaining the net acreage covered by each conveyance, finds some support in the cases which hold that, however clearly it may appear that the owner of a parcel of land holds title to the center of an adjoining street, subject to the public easement, and that the boundary of the parcel is technically, therefore, the center of the street, in view of the fact that the owner of such parcel of land has no right to the possession or occupancy of any portion of the public street, it will ordinarily be presumed that the parcel does not include such portion of the street.