Morenhout v. Higuera

By the Court, Sanderson, J.: Ejectment. The plaintiffs allege title to an undivided half of the “ Plain of San Ignacio,” parcel of the Rancho “ Los Tulareitos ” in Santa Clara County, which was granted to José Higuera, now deceased, by the Mexican Government.

The defendants deny the title of the plaintiffs and allege title in themselves. They also plead in bar a former judgment of the Court in another action, to which plaintiffs and defendants were parties, in which it was adjudged and determined that the plaintiffs had no title to the premises.

At the trial the plaintiffs made a case which entitled them to recover and rested. The defendants then offered in evidence the judgment roll in the suit of Scott v. Higuera et al. in support of their plea in bar, to which objection was made by the plaintiffs upon the ground that it was irrelevant and incompetent.

Both parties claim title under the Mexican grant to José Higuera. The suit of Scott v. Higuera was for a partition of the Rancho Tulareitos y San Ignacio, instituted by Scott against Higuera and others, among whom were the plaintiffs to this action. All parties claimed under the Higuera title. The plaintiffs were personally served with summons, but ndver appeared. As against them the allegation of the complaint [293]was, in substance, that they had or claimed to have some interest in the rancho under the Mexican grant to Higuera, which was unknown to the plaintiff; and he therefore asked that they might be required to show what their interest was and establish the same by proof.. The defendants who answered to the partition suit set up and claimed interests in the rancho, which, together with that of the plaintiff, covered the whole thereof and united with the plaintiff in asking for a partition. The Court adjudged that the plaintiffs in this case had no interest, and partitioned the rancho among the other parties according to their interests. The whole case turns upon the question whether the judgment in Scott v. Higuera 'is conclusive against the plaintiffs’ title and right to recover. The Court below held that it was, and rendered judgment for the defendants.

It is contended on the part of the appellants that the judgment in Scott v. Higuera does not estop the plaintiffs from setting up their title, and that it is not evidence against them or their title. And in support of this view it is argued—first, that an action for a partition has a special purpose, to wit : the division of land among tenants in common, etc., and that nothing else can be done; that the titles or interests of the tenants cannot be litigated and determined; that if anything of that character has to be done, it must be done elsewhere. Second, that if this can be done in an action for partition, it was not done in this case; that no issue as to the title or interest of the plaintiffs was made and no trial was had, and that therefore the decision of the Court that they had no title has nothing to support it, and is therefore corarn non judice. That if Scott desired to try and determine the plaintiffs’ title he should have tendered an issue in his complaint upon that subject, but that he did not, and hence there was no such issue in the case, and hence upon the general principles upon which the doctrine of res adjudicata rests, the judgment of the Court that the plaintiffs had no title is no bar.