County of Tuolumne v. Crook

177 Cal. App. 2d 490, 2 Cal. Rptr. 197
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 27, 1960
DocketCiv. No. 9729
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 177 Cal. App. 2d 490 (County of Tuolumne v. Crook) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
County of Tuolumne v. Crook, 177 Cal. App. 2d 490, 2 Cal. Rptr. 197 (Cal. Ct. App. 1960).

Opinion

VAN DYKE, P. J.

This is an appeal from a judgment which enjoined appellants from interfering with the use by the public of a road which crosses their ranch. The county brought the action, alleging that the road was a public road and that the defendants were interfering with its use. By their answer defendants denied the road was a public road. By their cross-complaint they asked that their title be quieted against the county in respect to its claims. The trial court made the following findings:

“That there is in existence and use a roadway of sufficient width to accommodate the passage of a standard motor vehicle of the character of passenger car or standard truck, which said roadway traverses a course beginning approximately at the northerly end of the county owned and maintained county road (belonging to the County of Tuolumne Road System) running from Groveland in said County, State of California, known as the ‘Phelan-Mogan Road’, and in a general northerly direction to defendants and cross-complainants’ lands (described in the Answer and Cross-Complaint on file here) ; thence in a general northerly direction on the east side of the fence fencing the lands of defendants, and cross-complainants along said fence line to a wooden gate in said barbed wire fence, which said wooden gate closes and attaches to a large pine tree; and which is located on the lands of defendants and cross-complainants described as aforesaid and more particularly in Section 9, T. 1 S., R. 16 E., M.D.B. and M.; thence through said gate in a general northwesterly direction across said Section 9, and a portion of Sections 8, 5 and 6 of said T. 1 S., R. 16 E., M.D.B. and M. to the northerly boundary of said lands of defendants and cross-complainants . . . and which said road is commonly known as the ‘Mohican Mine Road’; (and from which point after leaving defendants and cross-complainants’ lands said road traverses Section 6 of T. 1 S., R. 16 E., M.D.B. and M., and portions of Sections 31 and 32 of T. 1 N., R. 16 E., M.D.B. and M., as a road, to the Mary Ellen Mine, and from said Mary Ellen Mine traverses and continues as a trail through the Mohican Mine property to a footbridge crossing the Tuolumne River in Section 32, T. 1 N., R. 16 E., M.D.B. and M., all in Tuolumne County, California.)
“That beginning about 1901 or 1902 and for many years thereafter the public continuously used said roadway and trail openly, notoriously, adversely to the owners of the lands it crossed and under claim of right thereto for the purposes [493]*493of hauling of goods in and out, the transportation of miners and laborers, and by the sportsmen for the purpose of hunting, fishing, packing and horseback riding.
“That said open and notorious use of said road continued during the ownership of said ranch continuously through the ownership of defendants’ predecessors in interest, including Mrs. Nora Mogan, who owned the same until 1941, and Mr. James H. Phillips who owned the same until 1952, without interruption of the use thereof save by unlocked gates, and ‘no hunting or trespassing’ signs, until October, 1954. That in October of 1954, defendants and cross-complainants locked said wooden gate at the pine tree above described, claiming said road to be a private way and permission revocable.
‘ ‘ That defendants and cross-complainants continued to keep said gate locked until the filing of the complaint herein and the issuance of the temporary restraining order herein, which has since become a temporary injunction.”

The court drew conclusions of law that the Mohican Mine Road, approximately 10 feet in width as it traverses the land of defendants and cross-complainants, was dedicated to the usage of the public and that the dedication was accepted by the public by usage thereof; that the right of the public to use the road had never been abandoned or lost; that the maintenance of a lock by defendants upon any gate closing the road as it traverses lands of defendants and cross-complainants constituted a public nuisance which should be abated.

Defendants and cross-complainants, hereinafter called appellants, contend generally that the evidence is insufficient to support the court’s findings and conclusions that the road in question was a public road; that the evidence is insufficient to support the finding that the road had never been abandoned as a public road; that the county’s cause of action was barred because commenced more than five years after it arose.

The latest comprehensive statement by the Supreme Court on the subject of public roads, rights to which became vested in the public by user, is contained in Union Transportation Co. v. Sacramento County, 42 Cal.2d 235 [267 P.2d 10], Therein it was held : 1. That a common-law dedication has been described as “a voluntary transfer of an interest in land . . . which partakes both of the nature of a [494]*494grant and a gift and is governed by the fundamental principles which control such transactions.” 2. That “essential to such a dedication are an offer by the owner of the land clearly and unequivocally indicated by his words or acts to dedicate the land to a public use and an acceptance by the public of the offer.” 3. That “many cases hold that an offer to dedicate land may be inferred from the owner’s long acquiescence in public use of the property which negative the idea the use was under a license.” 4. That “in another line of decisions by analogy to the doctrine of prescription, it is held that ‘ [w] hen the public or such portion of the public as had occasion to use a road has traveled over it for a period of more than five years with full knowledge of the owner, without asking or receiving permission to do so and without objection being made by anyone, a conclusive presumption of dedication to the public arises.’ ” 5. That “where the dedication of a highway is sought to be established by user it must be shown that the use is adverse, continuous and with the knowledge of the owner for the required period of time”; that “whether the user was adverse is a question of fact to be determined from all the circumstances of the case.” The court went on to say that the distinction between the two methods by which dedication of land to public use might be proved had been well stated in Schwerdtle v. County of Placer, 108 Cal. 589 [41 P. 448]. Quoting from that decision the court said:

“ ‘. . . If a dedication is sought to be established by a use which has continued a short time—not long enough to perfect the rights of the public under the rules of prescription—then truly the actual consent or acquiescence of the owner is an essential matter, since without it no dedication could be proved and none would be presumed; but where this actual consent and acquiescence can be proved, then the length of time of the public use ceases to be of any importance, because the offer to dedicate, and the acceptance by use, both being shown, the rights of the public have immediately vested.

“‘ But where the claim of the public rests upon long-continued adverse use, that use establishes against the owner the conclusive presumption of consent, and so of dedication. . . • ’ Dedication by adverse user has been characterized as one implied by law; one inferred from the acts of the owner or from his acquiescence in public user may be termed a dedication implied in fact.”

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Related

Ackley v. City & County of San Francisco
11 Cal. App. 3d 108 (California Court of Appeal, 1970)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
177 Cal. App. 2d 490, 2 Cal. Rptr. 197, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/county-of-tuolumne-v-crook-calctapp-1960.