Sneed v. Osborn

By the Court, Rhodes, J. On the 19th of March, 1847, Salvador Vallejo conveyed to L. W. Boggs one square mile of land in Napa Valley, bounded as follows : “ Beginning at a point near the base of the mountain on the west side of Napa Valley, one half a mile in a southerly direction from where a small branch or brook enters the valley from the mountains, usually known as the Old Rhodare; thence running from the said point of beginning along a line parallel with the base of the mountains, in a northerly direction one mile; thence forming a right angle and running in an easterly direction one mile; thence making a right angle and running in a southerly direction one mile ; thence making a right angle and running in a westerly direction one mile to the point of beginning.”

Vallejo conveyed to Harrison, on the 5th of April, 1847, one square mile of land, the only description of the boundaries being as follows : “ Bounded on the north by a certain tract of one square mile, which said Vallejo sold to L. W. Boggs, by deed bearing date the 19th day of March, A. D. 1847.” Subsequent to the deed, and about the last of April of the same year, Vallejo and Boggs went on the land, and caused a survey of the same to be made by Surveyor Ide, who set stakes at the southeast, the northeast and northwest corners, [624]and directed the parties where to set the stake at the southwest corner, at a certain distance north of where he had set the stake for the first station; and the southern, eastern and northern lines were marked. The position of the initial point is uncertain. Probably no two men would take the deed, and going on the land separately, fix upon the same place for the initial point, for the place where the creek enters the valley— the line where the hills terminate and the valley begins—is difficult of ascertainment, there being a gradual slope of the hills to the valley; and the “OldRhodare,” which the parties understood to mean rodeo grounds, is a tract which may include from a few acres to five hundred acres. In view of this uncertainty, the parties went on the land for the puipose of establishing the lines, and in the first place agreed upon a certain tree on the bank of the creek, as the initial point; but on the surveyor measuring thence south half a mile and setting the first station and running from thence the southern line, the parties, after some controversy as to the land to be included, agreed.that the first station should be set to the north such a distance, that the southern line should not cross Dry Creek-; and the lines were run and marked and corner stakes were set accordingly, the western line not being actually run or marked, but directions being given for setting the stake at its southern extremity, so as to accord with the southern line as run.