Sabichi v. Aguilar
Before: Rhodes, Wallace
Synopsis
Appeal from the District Court of the Seventeenth Judicial District, County of Los Angeles.
This was an action of ejectment, commenced April 13th, 1868, for a lot in the City of Los Angeles. Defendants answered, setting up the Statute of Limitations and adverse possession thereunder since 1856. The cause was tried, without a jury, in September, 1869, and the Court below found as facts the holding by the plaintiff of the pueblo title, and the various circumstances relating to its confirmation, survey, and approval of survey, as set forth in the opinion of Justice Wallace, and concluded as follows:
“8. That about the month of July, 1867, an application was made on the part of the authorities of the City of Los Angeles to J. Wilson, United States Commissioner of the General Land Office, at Washington, for the issuance of a patent for said city lands, to which said application he replied: ‘ That the statute does not provide for the issuing of patents for this class of claims, and without authority of law it cannot of course be done. The confirmation under the statute, together with the plat of survey, constitute the evidence of title.’ And he, therefore, declined to issue any patent, and no further proceedings have been taken since.”
As a conclusion of law the Court found that plaintiff’s cause of action was barred by the Statute of Limitations, and rendered judgment for defendants. The plaintiff appealed.
Opinion — Wallace
By the Court,
Wallace, J.: The plaintiff deraigns title to the premises in controversy (a lot in the City of Los Angeles) by grant from the municipal authorities; and the only question presented upon this appeal is the effect of the Statute of Limitations pleaded by the defendant in bar of the action.
The claim of the city as successor of the Pueblo of Los Angeles, including the lot in controversy, was duly confirmed under the Act of Congress of March 3d, 1851, pro-[290]Tiding for the settlement of private land claims in California; but no patent pursuant to such confirmation has been issued by the authorities of the United States. The defendants have been in possession of the premises ever since the year 1856. In September, 1858, a survey in the field was made of the lands confirmed, and in July, 1859, this survey, and the plat thereof, were approved in due form by the Surveyor General of the United States for the time being; and the plat thus approved by him remained in his office, subject to inspection, until the month of November, 1860.
In the meantime, on the 14th day of June, 1860, Congress passed the Act defining and regulating the jurisdiction of the District Courts of the United States in regard to the survey and location of confirmed private land claims in this State (12 U. S. Stats, at Large, 38); and in the months of September and October next succeeding its passage the Surveyor General, ex mero moiu, and in assumed compliance with its provisions, published in the newspapers a notice of the fact of survey made, and its approval by him, which publication was conducted in the manner prescribed by the first section of the Act. The action having been commenced on the 13th day of April, 1868, and the defendants having pleaded the Statute of Limitations upon the foregoing facts appearing, the Court below rendered judgment in their favor.
The title of the plaintiff is derived from the Mexican ■ Government, and it will be seen by reference to the Statute of Limitations, as amended in 1855, p. 109, that under its provisions he was at liberty to assert that title by an action “ commenced within five years from the time of final confirmation of such title by the Government of the United States, or its legally constituted authorities.” ,
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