Pulliam v. Bennett

McKee, J.: The action is ejectment. The land in dispute was originally part of the Bosquejo or Lassen Rancho, lying partly in the County of Tehama and partly in the County of Butte. Plaintiffs claim title to it by mesne conveyances from one Henry Gerke, who was the owner of it. The rancho was patented in 1862. But in 1856 there was pending between Gerke and one Henry Ford and II. L. Wilson a controversy for one-third of the rancho. This controversy was compromised and settled by Gerke agreeing to convey to Wilson and Ford 5,000 acres from the lower end of the rancho—4,500 acres to Wilson, and 500 acres to Ford. In performance of his agreement, Gerke had two deeds prepared, one to Wilson for 4,500 acres, and another to Ford for 500 acres. In the Wilson deed the land is described as follows: “All that certain tract or parcel of land situated in the County of Tehama, said [370]State, described as follows, to wit: being four thousand five hundred (4,500) acres of land taken off of the lower or most southerly portion of the rancho known as the Bosquejo or Lassen Rancho, extending the full width of said rancho, from the westerly to the easterly boundaries thereof, and as far above the southerly line of said rancho as shall be necessary to include or contain four thousand five hundred acres of land; provided, that no part of the land hereby conveyed, or intended to be conveyed, shall be or extend north of a straight line drawn from a point on the Sacramento River, at a distance of one Spanish league south of the mouth of Deer Creek, due east to the easterly boundary line of said rancho; and if there should not be four thousand five hundred acres of land between said line and the southerly line of said rancho, then the balance or residue of land, to make up the said four thousand five hundred acres, shall be taken off from the south-easterly corner of said rancho, in a square form; the westerly boundary of said last named square not to extend within one Spanish league of the Sacramento River.”

The piremises conveyed by the Ford deed are described as follows: “ All that certain tract or parcel of land situated in the County of Tehama, said State, described as follows, to wit: being 500 acres of the rancho known as the Bosquejo or Lassen Rancho. It being expressly understood that the said 500 acres shall be taken off of the south-westerly corner of said rancho in a rectangular form, the frontage along the Sacramento River to be not more than one-half the depth. Provided, that no part of the land hereby conveyed, or intended to be conveyed, shall be or extend north of a straight line drawn from a point on the Sacramento River one Spanish league south of the mouth of Deer Creek, due east to the easterly boundary line of said rancho.”