People v. Marblehead Land Co.

255 P. 553, 82 Cal. App. 289, 1927 Cal. App. LEXIS 677
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 12, 1927
DocketDocket No. 4997.
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 255 P. 553 (People v. Marblehead Land Co.) 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
People v. Marblehead Land Co., 255 P. 553, 82 Cal. App. 289, 1927 Cal. App. LEXIS 677 (Cal. Ct. App. 1927).

Opinion

CRAIG, J.

— The plaintiff and respondent instituted this proceeding in eminent domain for the purpose of acquiring certain lands in the county of Ventura, alleged in its complaint as being necessary to the completion of a system of state highways contemplated by legislative acts of 1909 and 1915, and by section 2, article XVI, of the constitution of the state of California, adopted July 1, 1919.

*292 The constitutional provision last mentioned directed the preparation of forty thousand suitable state bonds in the denomination of one thousand dollars each, bearing interest at the rate of four and one-half per cent per annum, payable semi-annually, and that they be signed, sold, and paid as provided in said act of 1915; and created funds therein designated as the “third state” highway, interest, revolving, and sinking funds. It was also provided, in part, that: “The moneys of said ‘third state highway fund’ shall be used by the state department of engineering for the acquisition of rights of way for and the acquisition, construction and improvement of uncomplete portions of the system of state highways prescribed by the act of the legislature approved May 22, 1909, known as the ‘state highways act,’ and the act of the legislature approved May 20, 1915, and known as the ‘ state highways act of 1915,’ and certain extensions thereof described in said last-mentioned act, and also for the acquisition of the rights of way for and the acquisition, construction and improvement of the following additional highways as state highways: Barstow to Needles; Oxnard to San Juan Capistrano”; and twenty-nine other sections of the intended highway system. “Said additional highways to be located on the most direct and practical routes; provided, however, that twenty million dollars of the moneys in said ‘third state highway fund,’ or so much of said twenty million dollars as shall be necessary, shall be used for the completion of all of the system of state highways contemplated and provided for in said ‘ state highways act’ and in said ‘state highways act of 1915,’ and the extensions thereof in said last-named act.”

The plaintiff alleged that at a meeting held at Sacramento on November 24, 1922, “the California Highway Commission, acting for and on behalf of the Department of Public Works of the State of California and the State of California, all of its members being present, a majority of the members of said California Highway Commission passed and adopted a resolution,” set forth in the complaint in haec verba, and which recited, among other things: That whereas said board had theretofore been authorized by the provisions of the constitution, quoted above, to acquire rights of way for and to acquire, construct, and improve a state highway between Oxnard in the county of Ventura, and San Juan *293 Capistrano, in the county of Orange; and whereas said department deemed it necessary to proceed with the acquisition of title to strips or parcels of land necessary for such purposes; that said strips or parcels were necessary for such use; that public interest and necessity required such acquisition of the same for public use as rights of way for said state highway purposes; that the use of the lands hereinbefore described as and for rights of way for state highway purposes is a more necessary public use thereof than the use thereof or any part thereof for rights of way for railroad purposes; that therefore it be resolved that pursuant to such authority the strips or parcels of land specified were adopted as parts and units in and of the final survey line and location for said state highway, and declared “that such acquisition by the state of California of each, every and all of said described strips or parcels of land as rights of way for integral portions of said state highway is necessary and that such acquisition, in the manner provided by law, of said rights of way be and the same is hereby declared necessary. ’ ’ And said resolution authorized the attorney-general to take all necessary steps to condemn the same. It was further alleged that “all facts, matters and things stated in said resolution of said California Highway Commission were and are true, and there is and at the time of passing and adopting said resolution there was sufficient money in the third state highway fund . . . available to pay for the right of way sought to be acquired by this action”; that bonds to the amount of $24,000,000 had been sold and the proceeds thereof paid into the state treasury to the credit of said fund.

The portion of the real property here involved, as described in the resolution and complaint, consists of a strip eighty feet in width, forty feet each side of a center line extending from a point in the westerly line of lot 3, section 27, township 1 south, range 20 west, San Bernardino base and meridian, in Ventura County, to a point on the boundary line between the counties of Ventura and Los Angeles, and is described by metes and bounds, and alleged to be “a part of a single tract of land.”

The resolution embraced other lands, lying in Los Angeles County, which were also declared by the highway commission to be necessary integrals of the same highway. *294 It was followed, however, by allegations of the complaint that public interest and necessity required the construction and improvement of a highway upon the lands in Ventura County, therein specifically described, and the plaintiff prayed that the use to which said land was sought to be taken be declared a public use authorized by law, and its taking necessary to such use.

The defendants demurred generally to the complaint, and also upon asserted grounds of ambiguity and uncertainty in that it could not be ascertained therefrom whether the plaintiff was seeking to condemn the right of way described as lying in Los Angeles County, or that described as being within the boundaries of Ventura County. The demurrer was overruled, and the defendants jointly answered admitting ownership in the defendant Marblehead Land Company of all the lands through which ran the strip sought to be condemned, subject to an alleged easement of the defendant railway company, which said lands, they averred, consisted of a narrow strip from one-half to one and one-half miles in width; and the other material allegations of the complaint were denied.

For a special affirmative. defense the defendants alleged that all of the property described in the complaint was owned by the defendant Marblehead Land Company, subject to certain easements and leasehold interests; that the county of Los Angeles had caused to be condemned a right of way for county highway purposes through the ranch property heretofore mentioned, lying in said county, had declared on October 15, 1921, that it was open to the public, and that the same ever since had been used for such purposes, “although the legality of said condemnation is now being contested by the former owners of said property.

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Bluebook (online)
255 P. 553, 82 Cal. App. 289, 1927 Cal. App. LEXIS 677, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-marblehead-land-co-calctapp-1927.