Fischer v. City of Benicia

By the Court, Sawyer, C. J. : Prior to 1850, M. G. Vallejo claimed to own, under a Mexican grant, a large tract of land, including the present City of Benicia, called the Suscol Rancho. In 1850 the City of [567]Benicia was incorporated under an Act of the Legislature, and the lands included within its corporate limits, under the authority of its officers, were laid out into blocks, lots, streets, alleys, public squares, etc., and a map thereof made and filed. In 1851 another Act incorporating said city was passed, and another map made and adopted as the official map of said city. Many lots were sold to citizens and others in accordance with said surveys and maps by the parties claiming title under the said Mexican grant. The plat embraced a large tract of land, over the greater portion of which the streets and blocks have never to this day been opened, or in any way occupied as public streets, nor have the lots been separately occupied as town lots, but, on the contrary, the land on a large portion of the tract has been fenced up and occupied in large tracts for agricultural and pasturage purposes. In 1862 the claim of title under the Mexican grant was finally rejected by the Supreme Court of the United States, so that the title then appeared to be in the United States, and the lands to be a part of the public domain of the United States. Subsequently the city authorities presented a memorial to Congress, praying the passage of an Act authorizing the city to enter the lands within the corporate limits for the benefit of the occupants and bona fide owners of improvements thereon, according to their respective interests. On the 20th of February, 1866, the Legislature of California, apparently in anticipation of the passage of such an Act by Congress, passed an Act providing for giving notice to claimants, and adopting proceedings for ascertaining who were the rightful occupants of portions of lands so within the charter limits, and for vesting in such occupants any title derived by the city through any patent from the United States to the City of Benicia under any such contemplated Act of Congress, and for disposing of such unoccupied and unimproved property as should fall to the city. Section eleven of said Act authorized the Trustees to close and convey to the owner or owners of property fronting thereon, any and all public squares, streets, and [568]alleys, as laid down on the official map of said town, north of M street and west of Third street. (Stats. 1865-6, p. 110, Sec. 11.) The portion thus described outside of said lines, includes about two thirds of the entire city plat, and constitutes a large part of that portion in which the streets, alleys, and public squares have never been opened, or used as such, while that portion of the city within said lines, and between these and the waters of the bay, embraces that portion of the city which has been occupied as city lots, and in which the streets, etc., have been opened and used as public streets. On the 23d of July following (1866) Congress passed “ An Act to quiet the title to certain lands within the corporate limits of the City of Benicia,” etc., which provides “that all the right and title of the United States to the land situated within the corporate limits of the City of Benicia, in the County of Solano, State of California, as defined in the Act incorporating said city, passed by the Legislature of the State of California, April 24th, 1851, be and the same are hereby relinquished and granted to the said city and its successors, upon trust, however, that so much of said lands as is in the bona fide occupancy of parties upon the passage of. this Act, by themselves or tenants, shall be conveyed by said city to such parties; provided, however, that the relinquishment and grant by this Act shall not extend to any lands within said corporate limits, occupied as a military depot of the United States, or heretofore reserved by the United States for public purposes, nor shall they interfere with or prejudice any valid adverse right or claim, if such exist, to said land, or any part thereof, or preclude a judicial examination and adjustment thereof.” (14 United States Statutes at Large, 209.) Under these Acts of the Legislature of California, and of Congress, the plaintiff presented his claim to a tract of land, lying outside and to the northward of said M and West Third streets, of which he had been in possession over five years. It was inclosed in large tracts, so as to embrace blocks, lots, portions of streets, alleys, and public squares, and used for residence, tillage, and pasturage,