Carter v. Bank of America National Trust & Savings Ass'n

ADAMS, P. J. Plaintiffs brought this action to recover the sum of $1,295.03 on deposit with defendant The Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association. The complaint alleged that plaintiffs, in 1940, had leased to the Greenhorn Dredging Company, a copartnership, what was described as the North Star Mining Claim, being the S% of the SWy4 of the SEy4 and the Sy2 of the Sy2 of the SW% of Section 17, and the S% of the SE14 of the SE1^ of Section 18, all in T. 9 N., R. 12 E., M. D. B. & M.; that the lease provided for royalty payments to plaintiffs, and that the $1,295.03 which they sought to recover represented royalty payments, which, pursuant to the terms of the lease, had been deposited by lessees with the Placerville branch of defendant bank, for the account of plaintiffs.

[113]Arroyo Ditch Company, a corporation, filed a complaint in intervention, setting up a lease from the Greenhorn Dredging Company to the Arroyo Mining Company, which lease, it was alleged, had been assigned to intervener; and it claimed that the $1,295.03 in controversy represented royalties from gold that had been mined from land demised under the aforesaid lease and not from land leased by plaintiffs. It asserted (Par. X) that plaintiffs wrongfully claimed adversely to them because of a dispute and an uncertainty as to the location and position of the southerly boundary of sections 17 and 18 and the northerly boundary of sections 19 and 20, T. 9 N., R. 12 E., M. D. B. & M. Plaintiffs answered the complaint in intervention, admitting its allegations in part but denying those contained in paragragh X as above set forth. Apparently no answer was filed by defendant bank, but it was stipulated by its counsel and counsel for plaintiffs and the intervener, that the moneys in controversy should be held by said bank, to be paid by it to whoever should be found by the court to be entitled thereto.

The cause was tried by the court sitting without a jury, and it was stipulated that if the location of the line between section 17 and section 20 was as contended by intervener, the gold had been taken from property held by Arroyo Ditch Company, but if the location of the line was as contended by plaintiffs the gold had been taken from land belonging to plaintiffs. The trial court found that the line was as contended by intervener and entered judgment in its favor.

On this appeal the sole question is whether there is sufficient substantial evidence to sustain the trial court’s finding that “the section corner common to sections 17, 18, 19 and 20, Township 9 North, Range 12 East, M. D. B. & M., is situated N 00° 3' West 2631.6 feet from the quarter corner between Sections 19 and 20 and was surveyed by Alexander McKay in 1869, and from the said corner the section line extends easterly South 89° 48' East and Westerly North 89° 52' West 2610.9 feet to the quarter corner between sections 18 and 19, and that the North Star Mining Claim does not extend south of said line as in this paragraph described, and said corner and said line are in accordance with the official map and field notes of said section. ’ ’