Rice v. Trinity County

The Court. The plaintiff brought this action to recover from the defendant its proportionate share of the cost of surveying and definitely marking out the boundary line between the counties of Humboldt and Trinity on the one side and the county of Mendocino on the other side. The defendant demurred to the complaint on various grounds, and the demurrer was sustained. The plaintiff declined to amend, and thereupon judgment was entered that he take nothing by his action-, from which he appeals.

The facts stated in the complaint are in substance as follows: Each of the counties named was, at all the times mentioned in the complaint, a body corporate and politic, and an organized county of the state of California. The southern boundary line of the counties of Humboldt and Trinity is coincident with the northern boundary line of the county of Mendocino, and is the fortieth parallel of north latitude. The [249]whole length of this boundary line is fifty-seven and four hundred and ninety-two thousandths miles, and the length of it between the counties of Humboldt and Mendocino is twenty-five and seven hundred and twenty-five thousandths miles, and between the counties of Trinity and Mendocino is thirty-one and seven hundred and sixty-eight thousandths miles.

On the twenty-second day of July, 1891, the said boundary line was not marked by natural objects or lines, or by surveys lawfully made, and, on that day, the board of supervisors of Mendocino county made application to the surveyor general of the state to have the said line surveyed and definitely established. In pursuance of this application the surveyor general, on August, 17, 1891, duly appointed the plaintiff a surveyor to make a survey of said boundary line, and authorized and empowered him to make such survey. In pursuance of said appointment and authority the plaintiff made a survey of said boundary line, and definitely marked the same, and established the common corners of said three counties on the fortieth parallel of north latitude.

The said survey was made between September 1,1891, and December 18, 1891, and on the last-named day the surveyor general duly approved the same, and it was filed in his office and is of record therein. The cost of making said survey was five thousand one hundred and sixty-one dollars and sixty-six cents, and the proportion thereof chargeable to the defendant was fourteen hundred and twenty-seven dollars and nineteen cents.

In November, 1892, and within a year after the last item of account had accrued, plaintiff filed with the clerk of the board of supervisors of defendant, and duly presented to said board for allowance, his claim and bill for his services in making said survey, the same being properly made out and verified. The said claim came up to be heard by the said board on January 4, 1893, and on that day the board made an order rejecting the claim, and refused to allow the same or any part thereof.