Buckley v. Mohr

CHIPMAN, C. Ejectment. Defendant had judgment, from which, and from the order denying motion for new trial, plaintiff appeals. Block K of Horton’s addition to the city of San Diego is fractional, and its west boundary line is the east boundary line of fractional block 2 of Middletown, the two fractional blocks extending from Front street on the east to Union street on the west, forming one entire block, being bounded as shown above on the east and west, on the south by C street, and on the north by B street. Plaintiff claims by a deed made to her in 1886, describing her land as follows: “Beginning at the southwest corner of block K, Horton’s addition, thence easterly twenty-five feet, thence northerly one hundred feet, thence westerly twenty-five feet, thence southerly one hundred feet to beginning; being the same land previously conveyed to plaintiff’s grantor by the San Diego and Los Angeles R. R. Co.” It is otherwise known as the west twenty-five feet off lots G and H of Horton’s addition. Defendant claims the east ninety-two feet of said lot G through conveyance which described a piece of land beginning at the southeast corner of said block K; thence northerly along Front street fifty feet; thence at right angles west to the west line of the block, which line divides this block and block 2 of Middletown; thence south along this line to C street; thence along C street one hundred and seventeen feet to the beginning, “excepting a strip off the west end of above tract of twenty-five feet wide from east to west on said C street by fifty feet long from north to south, deeded to the Texas Pacific Railway Company August 5, 1873.” This excepted piece is the same as described in the complaint. When plaintiff’s grantor bought the property, in 1886, he built a laundry upon it, which was then, and ever since has been, rented and used for laundry purposes. The building fronts twenty-two feet and three inches on C street, and extends back about fifty feet, and plaintiff’s evidence tends to show that it was the intention of plaintiff’s grantor to build the house entirely on the west twenty-five feet of lot G, with a space for a drainage sewer on the west side of the house to C street. Plaintiff made no use of any.of the land lying along the east side of this laundry building, and no door opened on that side, but a door opened on the west side. In 1896 defendant inclosed his part of lot G with a fence, including in his inclosure all the land within six inches of the laundry. [323]Defendant claims that lot G runs back from Front street to the dividing line between block K of Horton’s addition and block 2 of Middletown, one hundred and seventeen feet, ae~ cording to Lockling’s map of Horton’s addition, and that his part of the lot is the east ninety-two feet, while he concedes that plaintiff’s deed calls for the west twenty-five feet of the lot, to which defendant makes no claim. Plaintiff claims according to the Jackson map of Middletown, which gives eighty-seven feet as the width of block 2, and would locate the ‘dividing line between the two blocks three feet six inches farther east than by Lockling’s map of Horton’s addition, and would reduce the length of lot G to one hundred and thirteen feet and four inches; and, as defendant concedes to plaintiff twenty-five feet off the west side of this lot, the Jackson map, if the true survey, would reduce defendant’s lot from ninety-two feet to eighty-three feet and four inches, and would show defendant to be a trespasser. It was stipulated at the trial by the parties that Lockling’s map of Horton’s addition is the official map, and was filed June 21, 1871, “and that the south line of said fractional block K, in said addition, is marked thereon one hundred and seventeen feet long, and that said south line of said fractional block K is the south line of said lot G therein; that said map shows that Horton’s addition has in it over four hundred blocks, each divided into twelve lots, designated by the letters A to L, and that the west half of each block is lettered A to F from north to south, and the east half G to L from south to north; that the Jackson map of Middletown is the official map of Middletown, and was filed October 19, 1874.” It was stipulated that defendant showed valid title to the realty east of the property named in the complaint, by a description which, among others, describes lot G as running on C street one hundred and seventeen feet from the line dividing Horton’s addition and Middletown.