Diamond Match Co. v. Savercool

WASTE, C. J.

This is an action to quiet title to a road, approximately fifteen miles in length, running through plaintiff's timber lands in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in

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Tehama County. The defendants Davison and Errington alone defended the action. Judgment went in their favor and plaintiff has appealed.

Plaintiff contends that the road is a private road and that defendants’ use thereof has been permissive only and not such as to give rise to any right. Defendants urge that it is a public road, dedicated as such by many years’ user, and that the plaintiff is estopped to deny its public character.

At the conclusion of the trial the court found that the defendants and other persons, and the public generally, have repeatedly used the road; that such user has been open, notorious and adverse to the plaintiff and under claim of right; that such user has been uninterrupted since 1870; that plaintiff, by means of a gate and lock, has attempted to interfere with but has never wholly prevented the use of the road by the public; that it is a public road dedicated as such by the plaintiff, and its predecessors in interest; that the defendants, their predecessors in interest, the public generally, and the board of supervisors of Tehama County, have accepted such dedication; that the lands of the contesting defendants can be reached by vehicle only by said road; that the defendants acquired and improved their lands in the belief that the road was a public road; that during the improvement of said lands the plaintiff at no time asserted that the road was a private road; that had they been so informed defendants would not have improved their lands; that without the use of said road the lands of the defendants would be practically valueless; and that the plaintiff is estopped to assert that the road is a private road.

Plaintiff contends that these findings are unsupported by the evidence. While there is considerable conflict in the evidence, defendants’ showing is ample to warrant the findings and conclusions of the trial court. Under elementary rules of appellate procedure, we are bound by the findings of the lower court.

The witness McKenzie, called by the defendants, testified that he had lived in Tehama County over sixty years; that he first went over the road in question in 1870; that he then lived in the vicinity and hauled produce over the road many times. James Savercool, called by the defendants, testified that he lived in Mill Creek Canyon and that over a period