Jatunn v. Smith

Prescription — Adverse User of Water—Public Lands — Grant from Government. —There can be no adverse possession of land, or adverse user of water to the natural flow of which such land is entitled, so long as the title to the land remains in the United States; but a prescriptive right to the use of water may be acquired after the legal title of such land has vested in a grantee of the government.

Id. — Grant to Central Pacific Railroad Company—Vesting of Title. —The grant of land to the Central Pacific Railroad Company, by the acts of Congress of July 1, 1862, and July 2, 1864, to aid in the construction of its road, was a grant in. prcesenti, passing the legal title to the lands granted as of the date of the grant, as soon as the sections were identified by a legal survey and the definite location of the road.

Id.—Patent for Railroad Land — Diversion of Water — Statute of Limitations. —As the legal title to land granted to the Central Pacific Railroad Company vested in the company upon identification of the land, and not at the date of the patent issued by the United States, the statute of limitations commenced to run in favor of one who diverted the waters of a stream upon the land after such identification and prior to the date of the patent, from the date of the diversion, as against the railroad company and its grantees.

Id.—Effect of Grant — Adverse Possession—Subsequent Patent.— When the legal title to land is granted by act of Congress, the title of the government is as effectively divested as it would be by the issuance of a patent therefor by the executive department under authority of law, and such land then becomes subject to the limitation laws of the state in which it is situated, and an adverse possession thereof, after the date of such grant for the requisite period fixed by such laws, will ripen into a legal title in favor of the adverse possessor, and the effect of such possession is not interrupted or defeated by the subsequent issuance of a patent therefor in pursuance of such act of Congress.

Id. — Recitals in Patent — Survey and Identification of Land Granted — Payment of Costs and Pees. — The recitals in the patent from the United States to the Central Pacific Railroad Company, showing that the line of the railroad was definitely located, and that the company afterward filed with the register and receiver at Sacramento a selection of the land under the acts of Congress, and that such selection was properly certified to or approved by such register and receiver, are sufficient proof of the fact that the land was at the date of its selection surveyed by authority of the United States, and identified as laud to which the grant made to the company had then attached, and that the costs of such survey and other fees required by law had been paid by such company.