Partridge v. McKinney

Burnett, J., after stating the facts, delivered the opinion of the Court. There is nothing in the position that plaintiff had abandoned his interest in the property in dispute. The law could not presume such an abandonment from the lapse of time. (Crandall v. Woods, 8 Cal. Rep., 144; Bird v. Lisbros, 9 Cal. Rep., 1.) And there was nothing in the testimony, as the Court justly found, to show any intention to abandon.

But the most important point in the case is, whether the defendants, McKinney and Elmore, were entitled to the property, as against the plaintiff, upon the ground that they were subsequent purchasers in good faith and for a valuable consideration, they having first recorded their conveyances. (Wood’s Digest, p. 103, § 26.) If this property is to be considered real estate, there can be no doubt as to the point.

In the case of the Merced Mining Company v. Fremont, (7 Cal. Rep., 317, 327,) we held that “ the owner of a mining-claim has, in practical effect, a good vested title to the property;” and that “his right to protect the property, for the time being, under the peculiar circumstances of the case, was as full and perfect as if he was the tenant of the superior proprietor for years, or for life.” And, in the subsequent case of Crandall v. Woods, (8 Cal. Rep., 143,) we held that “ one who locates upon the public lands, with a view to appropriating them to his own use, becomes the absolute owner thereof, as against every one but the government; and is entitled to all the privileges and incidents which appertain to the soil, subject to the single exception of rights antecedently acquired.” So, in the case of Bird v. Lisbros, (9 Cal., 1,) we held that “possession is evidence of title, and the party in possession is therefore deemed, in law, to be [184]the owner; and when he conveys the land to another, he is deemed, in law, not to convey his evidence of title, but the title itself; of which the law, by reason of such evidence, adjudges him the owner, as against all not having a superior title.”

In the same case we held, referring to the preceding case of Bird v. Dennison, (7 Cal. Rep., 297,) “that when a party relied upon possession as his sole evidence of title, he must be held to know the acts of those through whom he claims; and if he claims the benefit of some of their acts, he must share the responsibility of those that may be against him, when another party is, at the the time of his purchase, in the actual adverse possession of the premises. In other words, the actual adverse possession of another party, at the time of the conveyance, will be notice to the purchaser, whose grantors only claimed by a possession short of the period fixed by the Statute of Limitations.”