De Baker v. Southern California Railway

39 P. 610, 106 Cal. 257, 1895 Cal. LEXIS 600
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 8, 1895
DocketNo. 19391
StatusPublished
Cited by42 cases

This text of 39 P. 610 (De Baker v. Southern California Railway) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
De Baker v. Southern California Railway, 39 P. 610, 106 Cal. 257, 1895 Cal. LEXIS 600 (Cal. 1895).

Opinion

Beatty, C. J.

The plaintiff in this action is the owner of a large tract of land lying adjacent to and partly within the charter boundaries of the city of Los Angeles. The defendant is a railway corporation, formed by the consolidation of several older corporations, whose properties it has acquired and whose obli[270]*270gations it has assumed. The Los Angeles river flows through the city of Los Angeles from north to south. Ordinarily it is a small stream, and within the limits of the city is confined to a narrow channel, which sometimes flows in one place and sometimes in another, over a sandy bed about a half mile in width, which is bounded on the east by a well-defined and comparatively high natural bank, and on the west by a bank considerably lower and less plainly defined. Owing, however, to the fact that the river has its sources in the high mountains near the city, it is subject, during the rainy season, to sudden floods, which fill the entire bed of the stream and frequently overflow its banks. Occasionally, at irregular intervals of from two to tw'enty years, during the last fifty years, such floods have reached an extraordinary height, carrying away dwellings and other structures erected near the banks of the stream.

The city of Los Angeles, as successor to the pueblo, the original owner of most of the lands within the charter limits, granted to one of the predecessors of defendant a strip of land, including the west bank and a large portion of the bed of the Los Angeles river, and extending from the southern patent line of the pueblo lands (which is parallel to and about twelve hundred feet north of the southern charter line of the city) northward, along the river for a distance of several miles. This grant also included a right of way for railway tracks along and across the streets of the city; and such tracks, with the necessary sidings, turnouts, etc., have since been laid and operated by the grantees, including the defendant.

The lands so granted, as well as other adjacent lands within the city, were, however, subject to overflow from the river floods, and one of the conditions of the grant was that the grantee should erect a levee for the protection of such lands along the western line of the tract granted down to a designated point below First street. Such levee was accordingly built by the grantee down to the point designated, and more than a [271]*271mile beyond said point to the southern charter line of the city. The line of the levee, down to the point designated in the ordinance and grant of the city, seems to have been located on or beyond the western bank of the river, and wholly outside of the river-bed. But defendant’s predecessor did not stop at the point so designated. It continued the levee in a direct line to the southern charter boundary, as stated, and in so doing extended it into and nearly across the river-bed. As so constructed, this levee, which is protected on its eastern face by piling and planking, intersects the west bank of the river, about a mile above the charter line, at a point where the river-bed curves to the west, and at its lower extremity approaches to within three hundred feet of the eastern bank, the distance between the natural banks at that point being fully two thousand three hundred feet. This levee was commenced in 1887 and completed in 1888. In January, 1890, occurred one of those unusual floods in the Los Angeles river above referred to, and the water, being prevented by the levee from spreading out over the river-bed, as it had formerly done, was directed with such force against the eastern bank, a short distance south of the charter line, that it cut a new and permanent channel through the lands on and adjacent thereto, including the tract owned by plaintiff. The damage sustained by plaintiff consisted in the washing away of a considerable acreage of land, the deposit of sand and bowlders on other portions, the division of the tract into two parts, separated by the new and permanent channel of the river, destruction of fences, etc.

This action was brought for the recovery of such damages. The plaintiff had judgment in the superior court, and the defendant appeals from the judgment and an order denying its motion for a new trial.

The foregoing statement of the case is based upon the evidence adduced at the trial, and is necessary to a proper discussion of the exceptions of the defendant to the rulings of the superior court upon objections to evi[272]*272den ce, and in giving, refusing, and modifying instructions requested by the parties. It will also serve to illustrate some of the points involved in the assignments of error in regard to the order overruling the defendant’s demurrer to the complaint, and the order striking out of the original answer the principal matter of defense therein alleged, which assignments will be first considered.

The demurrer to the complaint was general for want of facts, and the principal point urged in its support is that the facts alleged do not show that the defendant, or its predecessor, violated any duty to the plaintiff, because they do not show how her land was situated in relation to the Los Angeles river, or to the levee complained of; and, consequently, that it does not appear from the allegations of the complaint.that the builders of the levee had any reason to anticipate damage to her lands from the work in which they were engaged.

The complaint is certainly not as definite and specific in regard to the relative situation of the plaintiff’s land to the defendant’s levee as it might easily have been made; but, with the aid of certain facts, of which the courts may take judicial notice, its deficiencies in this respect can be supplied. The boundaries of the city of Los Angeles are defined in the act of incorporation by reference to the public surveys of the United States, and, the lands of plaintiff being described by reference to the same surveys, we are enabled to spell out the fact that the northwestern corner of the plaintiff’s lands constituted the southeastern corner of the city according to the act of incorporation, of which, as a public act of the legislature of California, we take judicial notice. In the same way we know the relative position of the entire tract to the corporate boundaries of the city. The Los Angeles river, also, is mentioned in more than one public statute, and no doubt we may properly take judicial notice of the fact that it flows from north to south through the city of Los Angeles, and near its eastern limits.

[273]*273But, even if we cannot take notice of these facts, the complaint alleges that said river flows down through “the city.” In what direction it flows is not stated, but from the allegations that it has an east bank and a west bank, and that the obstruction of its channel and diversion of its current by a levee erected along or partly along the west bank within the city causes the river to cut through the east bank and flow across the lands of plaintiff, which, as we have seen, adjoin the city on the southeast, it may be inferred that the situation and flow of the stream are as above stated. That the words “ the city,” which occur several times in the complaint, mean the city of Los Angeles appears from their use in the description of plaintiff’s lands in connection with boundaries which can only belong to that particular city.

As to this matter, therefore, of the relative situation of plaintiff’s lands and the levee—the complaint, though lacking in directness and precision, is sufficient as against a general demurrer, and the other facts alleged make out a prima facie

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

Related

Smith v. Lockheed Propulsion Co.
247 Cal. App. 2d 774 (California Court of Appeal, 1967)
Gruner v. Barber
207 Cal. App. 2d 54 (California Court of Appeal, 1962)
Steiger v. City of San Diego
329 P.2d 94 (California Court of Appeal, 1958)
Hamilton v. Harkins
304 P.2d 82 (California Court of Appeal, 1956)
Anderson v. Fay Improvement Co.
286 P.2d 513 (California Court of Appeal, 1955)
Pauly v. King
284 P.2d 487 (California Supreme Court, 1955)
Clement v. State Reclamation Board
220 P.2d 897 (California Supreme Court, 1950)
Heimann v. City of Los Angeles
185 P.2d 597 (California Supreme Court, 1947)
Veterans' Welfare Board v. City of Oakland
169 P.2d 1000 (California Court of Appeal, 1946)
Sanitary District v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co.
61 N.E.2d 286 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1945)
Maezes v. City of Chicago
45 N.E.2d 521 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1942)
Pfeifer Oil Transp. Co. v. The Ira S. Bushey
129 F.2d 606 (Second Circuit, 1942)
Archer v. City of Los Angeles
119 P.2d 1 (California Supreme Court, 1941)
Everett v. Davis
115 P.2d 821 (California Supreme Court, 1941)
Mogle v. Moore
104 P.2d 785 (California Supreme Court, 1940)
Marin Municipal Water District v. Peninsula Paving Co.
94 P.2d 404 (California Court of Appeal, 1939)
Helvering v. Hickman
70 F.2d 985 (Ninth Circuit, 1934)
Loranger v. Nadeau
10 P.2d 63 (California Supreme Court, 1932)
Northwestern Pacific Railroad v. Currie
279 P. 1057 (California Court of Appeal, 1929)
Marblehead Land Co. v. Superior Court
213 P. 718 (California Court of Appeal, 1923)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
39 P. 610, 106 Cal. 257, 1895 Cal. LEXIS 600, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/de-baker-v-southern-california-railway-cal-1895.