Borchard v. Eastwood

65 P. 1047, 6 Cal. Unrep. 736, 1901 Cal. LEXIS 1255
California Supreme Court·Decided July 24, 1901·No. L. A. No. 869·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

COOPER, C.

Action to quiet title. Plaintiff recovered judgment and defendant appeals therefrom and from an order denying his motion for a new trial.

The premises are described in the complaint as “lying and being in the Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana, county of Orange, state of California, bounded and particularly described as follows, to wit: Beginning at a point 15.825 [737] chains east from the corner of sections 28, 29, 32, and 33, township 4 S., R. 9 W., S. B. M.; thence north 16.93 chains; thence east 5.905 chains; thence south 16.93 chains; thence west 5,905 chains, to point of beginning—containing ten acres. The same being a portion of lots 13 and 14, block F, of the A. B. Chapman tract, as per map made by Frank Leeouvereur in December, 1870.” At the close of plaintiff's evidence the defendant made a motion for a nonsuit, which was denied, and it is claimed that the court erred in denying the motion. The argument is that the description contained in certain deeds offered in evidence by the plaintiff, marked Exhibits A, B, C, D and E, does not identify the land described in the complaint. The land is described in Exhibit A as “commencing at a stake 9.92 chains east from the corner of sections 28, 29, 32, and 33, which is the southwest corner of the east one-half of lot No. 13, block F, on the Chapman tract of the Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana, and running thence north 16.93 chains 'to a ¡redwood post; thence east 16.81 chains to a redwood post; thence south 16.93 chains to iron pin 18 inches long; thence west 11.81 chains to the southwest corner, the place of beginning.” The same description is contained in Exhibits C and D. It is admitted that the description in the three deeds is the same, if the lands are in the same township and range as the land described in the complaint; but it is said that, as the deeds mention no township or range, they do not describe the same land. The description in the deeds was sufficient to identify the land without mentioning the township and range. We will not presume that there is another similar description of a tract of land in a different township and range commencing at the common corner to sections 28, 29, 32 and 33 in the Chapman tract in the Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana in the county of Orange. The description was sufficient to identify and locate the land. It has been held that, even if the deed describes the land as being in the southeast quarter, instead of the southwest quarter, of a named quarter section, the description is good if the land can be identified by monuments actually fixed upon the grounds: Helm v. Wilson, 76 Cal. 476, 8 Pac. 604. So it was held that, where a deed did not name the state, county or city in which the land was situated, the description was not void, because without it the property could still be located [738] and identified: McCullough v. Olds, 108 Cal. 532, 41 Pac. 420. The land was identified by Findley, a surveyor. He said he knew the stake at the common corner to sections 28, 29, 32 and 33, and that the land in question is a part of the Chapman tract. The description in Exhibit E describes the land as “beginning at a point 15.825 chains east from the corner of sections 28, 29, 32, and 33, township 45, range 9 west, S. B. M. ” Then follows a correct description of the ten acres as in the complaint. It is said that this deed is void because the township is described as “45” instead of “4.” This was evidently a mistake. The description identifies the land without the number of the township. It describes the land as being a “portion of lots 13 and 14, block F, of the A. B. Chapman tract, as made hy Frank Leeouvereur in December, 1870.” The number of the township in this deed may, therefore, be regarded as surplusage. Exhibit B conveyed all the land owned by the grantor in Los Angeles county on the fourteenth day of March, 1881, with certain exceptions. It is not claimed that the land described in the complaint here comes within the exceptions, and the description was therefore sufficient: Pettigrew v. Dobbelar, 63 Cal. 396. It was not error to admit the said deeds in evidence, and the nonsuit was properly denied.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Borchard v. Eastwood, 65 P. 1047, 6 Cal. Unrep. 736, 1901 Cal. LEXIS 1255 (Cal. 1901).

65 P. 1047 (Borchard v. Eastwood) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Crozer v. White
100 P. 130 (California Court of Appeal, 1908)