Davis v. Blasingame

181 P. 104, 40 Cal. App. 458, 1919 Cal. App. LEXIS 14
California Court of Appeal·Decided March 27, 1919·No. Civ. No. 2642.·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

RICHARDS, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment in plaintiff’s favor in an action for damages for the alleged trespass of the defendant’s cattle upon the lands of the plaintiff and another, and the consequent depasturing of the same. The complaint contains two causes of action, one relating to the depasturing of the plaintiff’s own lands, and one relating to the depasturing of t'he lands of another who assigned his cause of action to the plaintiff. The defense consists in a denial of the allegations of both counts of the complaint. The evidence educed upon the trial showed that the parties to the action were neighbors living in the eastern foothills of Fresno County, and owning tracts of land of considerable acreage in propinquity to each other. With the exception of about three hundred acres, the lands of the plaintiff and his assignor were uninclosed, and the defendant pastured his stock repeatedly upon these uninelosed lands after warning to desist from so doing. The trial court rendered judgment in the plaintiff’s favor for the damages in the sum of $1,003.35, with costs of suit.

*459 The only two points urged by the appellant upon this appeal are, first, that no recovery can be had for the depasturing of land in Fresno County unless the land is fenced, and, second, that even if such an action is maintainable it must be commenced within sixty days after the commission of the trespass. The determination of these points requires an inquiry into the state of the statutory law, and the decisions construing the same, in relation to fences upon pastoral lands in the county of Fresno. This inquiry may well begin with the case of Blevins v. Mullally, 22 Cal. App. 519, [135 Pac. 307], in which Mr. Justice Hart, after a very thorough review of the statutes and cases bearing upon the subject, holds that the rule of the common law which required every man to beep his beasts within his own close, was abrogated by the legislature of this state in 1850 (Stats. 1850, pp. 131, 214), and was for a time thereafter not in force in any of the counties of the state of California, but that commencing in the year 1863 the rule of the common law began to be restored to operation by special acts in that and later years, applying to an increasing number of the counties of the state as conditions changed therein from a pastoral to an agricultural or horticultural state. The first county to be thus affected was the county of Santa Clara (Stats. 1863, p. 581, as amended by Stats. 1871-72, p. 580). In the case of Hahn v. Garratt, 69 Cal. 146, [10 Pac. 329], these acts were held to intend that an owner of land in the county of Santa Clara was no longer required to fence it against cattle belonging to another person, but .could maintain an action for damages against the owner of cattle permitting them to trespass upon such uninclosed land. In the year 1874 the legislature passed an act (Stats. 1873-74, p. 50) entitled, “An act to protect agriculture and to prevent the trespassing of animals upon private property in the counties of Fresno, Tulare, Kern, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Monterey. ” The act provides that the owner or occupant of lands in the designated counties, whether such lands be inclosed or not, should have the right to take up and impound stock found upon such lands, and proceed to sell such stock for the damages occasioned by their trespass. Section 8 of the act gave to such owner or occupant of such lands the right" to maintain an action for the trespass in any court of competent jurisdiction without exercising his .right of impounding such stock, provided such action was com *460 meneed within sixty days. In the ease of Triscony v. Brandenstein, 66 Cal. 514, [6 Pac. 384], the supreme court had occasion to construe and apply this statute to a case of trespassing cattle upon unfenced lands in the county of Monterey, and the court there held that á cause of action existed for such trespass in that county in addition to the remedy of the proceeding in rem provided for in that statute, and that the plaintiff in that action was not restricted to the period of sixty days within which to bring his action.

In the case of Heilbron v. Heinlen, 70 Cal. 482, [12 Pac. 385], which was an action for the trespassing of stock upon unfeneed land in Fresno County, the supreme court sustained such action upon the authority of Triscony v. Brandensiein, supra, holding that the plaintiff was not confined in his proofs to the trespasses committed by the defendant’s cattle within sixty days prior to the commencement of his action. A similar ruling was made in the case of Zumwalt v. Dickey, 92 Cal. 156, [28 Pac. 212], an action arising in the county of Tulare.

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Davis v. Blasingame, 181 P. 104, 40 Cal. App. 458, 1919 Cal. App. LEXIS 14 (Cal. Ct. App. 1919).

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