Eversdon v. Mayhew

McKee, J. On the 1st day of May, 1865, Ann Wasson, then a widow with a child by a former husband, entered upon and took possession, under color of title, of “lots numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, in block number 47, as laid out and designated on the official plot of the town-site of Red Bluff, now on file in the office of the county recorder of the county of Tehama.” Upon these premises she had a small dwelling-house in which she and the child, who is the plaintiff in the action in hand, resided until the year 1866, when the widow intermarried with Henry Wasson'. After her marriage,' she, with her husband and the plaintiff, continued to live there and occupy said premises as her property, until September, 1867, when she died intestate, seized of said premises, and leaving surviving her as her only heirs at law, her said husband and child.

The lots upon which ,she thus entered and resided, and on which she died, were portions of two tracts of land which constituted the town-site of the town of Red Bluff. These tracts had been entered at the office of the register of the land office of the United States in California, by the county judge of Tehama County, in trust for the several use and benefit of the occupants thereof, according to their respective interests, under acts of Congress which provided for the reservation of town-sites upon public lands of the United States. (United States Land Laws, pp. 107, 108, 109.) After the entry had been made, the trustee purchased the lands under the provisions of. an act of Congress applicable to his trust; and on September 20, 1866, the government of the United States issued the patent to Warner Earll, the county judge of said county, and to his successors and assigns, for said lands, as the town-site of said town, in trust for the several use and benefit of the occupants of said lands according to their respective interests.

Congress provided that the execution of this trust, as to the disposal of the lots in said town, and the proceeds of the sales thereof, were to be conducted under such regulations as should be prescribed by the legislative authority of the State (§ 294, p. 109, supra); and on the 6th of March, 1868, the legislature [165]passed an act wliich authorized the trustee to distribute the town lots held by him in trust for the citizens of the town of Bed Bluff, and to issue certificates of title to the inhabitants of the town in accordance with their respective interests, in the manner prescribed by the act. (Stats. 1867-68, p. 107.)

The acts of Congress, under which the foregoing proceedings were had, vested the widow, as the original and bona fide occupant of the town lots in dispute, with an equitable title to' the same; and as she acquired the property before her marriage with Wasson, it was, by the laws of the State, her separate property. The protection of her title to this property was one of the objects of the congressional legislation upon the subject of town sites upon the public domain. (Alemany v. Petaluma, and Jones v. Petaluma, 38 Cal. 553, 397.) Had she lived, she would have had the right to perfect her equitable title to the property by obtaining from the trustee when he came to execute his trust, under the regulations prescribed by the State, a certificate of legal title. She died, however, before the State directed how the trust should be executed; and her estate in the property descended to her heirs, (Grover v. Hawley, 5 Cal. 486.) As one of these heirs, the plaintiff succeeded to an undivided one-half interests in the lots with the surviving husband as the owner of the other half. Wasson and the plaintiff thus became co-heirs and tenants in common of the property.