Petersen v. Murphy

139 P.2d 49, 59 Cal. App. 2d 528, 1943 Cal. App. LEXIS 350
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 29, 1943
DocketCiv. 6856
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 139 P.2d 49 (Petersen v. Murphy) 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
Petersen v. Murphy, 139 P.2d 49, 59 Cal. App. 2d 528, 1943 Cal. App. LEXIS 350 (Cal. Ct. App. 1943).

Opinion

ADAMS, P. J.

This action was brought by plaintiffs to determine the exact location and boundaries of a mining *530 claim which had been excepted from a United States patent to the SE14 of the NW14 and the NE34 of the SW^4 of sec. 3, T. 6 N., E. 12 E., M.D.B.&M. Plaintiffs had acquired the patented land and defendants the mining claim. It appears that a segregation survey had been made by the United States in 1881, but that the field notes of same had been lost in the San Francisco fire of 1906. The area claimed by defendants to constitute the mining claim as excepted from the patent, covered a part of what plaintiffs claimed was the segregated area, but included a portion in dispute, upon which disputed portion defendants had erected certain improvements consisting of a dwelling house, a water tank, etc., used in connection with their mining operations.

Plaintiffs’ complaint is in two counts. The first count is in the usual form of an action to quiet title to the SE14 of the NWiA and the NE^4 of the SW% of see. 3, T. 6 N., E. 12 E., M.D.B.&M., excepting therefrom a specifically described tract containing about nine acres representing what plaintiffs claimed to be a correct description of the segregated area. The second count alleges a trespass by defendants upon plaintiffs’ land and the extraction of ore therefrom to plaintiffs’ damage in a specified sum.

Defendants answered denying plaintiffs’ claim of ownership and alleged defendants’ ownership of the mining claim, giving a specific description of same in accordance with their own ideas as to its location and boundaries. They also alleged that they, by their predecessors, had taken possession of said quartz mining claim as described by them, and that ever since July 25, 1929, they had been in the actual, open, visible, notorious, exclusive, continuous, uninterrupted, quiet and peaceable possession of “said land,” “under a claim of right, holding- and claiming to own the same adversely to plaintiff, and all other persons,” and that they had “paid all taxes levied on and/or assessed against” same for a period of five years and more immediately preceding the filing of plaintiffs’ complaint. They denied generally the allegations of plaintiffs’ second cause of action. As separate defenses they pleaded the statute of limitations, their construction upon the land as described by them of the improvements above mentioned, and the carrying on by them of extensive mining operations thereon, all with the knowledge of plaintiffs and their predecessors in interest throughout a period of eleven years, and that plaintiffs and their predecessors had full knowledge of defendants’ possession and improvements, made *531 no claim therefor and acquiesced in all things done by defendants thereon. They also alleged laches on the part of plaintiffs and their predecessors in that they had not com- ' menced any proceedings within the eleven years, though they had knowledge of all of the foregoing facts.

At the conclusion of the trial the court made findings to the effect that about October 1, 1883, the United States Government had issued a patent to the SB1^ of the NW1^ and the NE1/^ of the SW]4 of said sec. 3, T. 6 N., R. 12 E., M.D.B.&M., excluding therefrom the so-called Manzanita Quartz Claim and adjoining area; and describing said excluded area as same was described in plaintiffs’ complaint. It also found “that at all the times referred to in plaintiffs’ complaint, plaintiffs were, and now are, the owners and possessed and entitled to the possession of the above described premises, excepting the segregated area last above described, and that the defendants have not, nor has either of them, any right, title, or interest whatever, of, in, to, or upon the said premises so conveyed by the United States Government to said Alexander L. Harding, as above described”; also “that all of the allegations alleged in the first cause of action pleaded in plaintiffs’ complaint herein, as amended, are true and correct, and that all of the denials thereof, and all of the allegations of the defendants contrary thereto, in their answer in said proceeding are untrue.” As to plaintiffs’ second cause of action it found that defendants had “wilfully, wrongfully, and unlawfully, and against the will of plaintiffs,” entered upon plaintiffs’ ground and mined ore therefrom, but that the trespass was without malice and the cost of extraction exceeded the values derived, and that plaintiffs had, therefore, suffered no damage. It found that defendants were the owners of the segregated area 1 ‘ as above described” and that “any and all allegations contained in said cross-complaint inconsistent with or contrary to the latter finding of fact, are not true.”

It also found that “through mistake” defendants had erected improvements upon plaintiffs' premises and that said improvements were so constructed upon plaintiffs’ said premises without any knowledge, deception, concealment or fraud on the part of the said plaintiffs, but that it would be equitable to permit defendants to remove the said improvements from the plaintiffs’ said premises; and by the judgment *532 which followed defendants were given six months within which to remove the said improvements.

Defendants have appealed, contending that the trial court committed reversible error in failing to find on the affirmative defenses pleaded by them, to-wit: adverse possession, statute of limitations, estoppel and laches. They assert in their brief that on all of these defenses evidence was offered and received and that the evidence leads to the conclusion that appellants were the sole possessors of their improvements and the lands upon which they were located, that they made that their home for eleven years continuously preceding plaintiffs’ action and were never molested in their enjoyment, that they alone carried on mining operations and work thereon, undisturbed, through said period, that they asserted ownership under a claim of right adverse to plaintiffs, but plaintiffs never claimed, and in fact disavowed in court, any claims to the improvements, that appellants paid taxes on their claim continuously from 1931 to 1941, that plaintiffs have never been in possession of the “Manzanita Claim” or any part thereof at any time within eleven years, that plaintiffs’ predecessor knew of the construction of appellants’ improvements, their expenditure of time, money and labor thereon, and made no objection thereto nor any claim thereto, and that plaintiffs and their predecessors slept on their rights, if any, for eleven years.

It is well established that unless waived full findings are required on all material issues raised by the pleadings and evidence in a case (24 Cal.Jur. 935-936); that where a court renders a judgment without making findings upon all material issues of fact, the decision is against law, and constitutes ground for granting a new trial provided it appears that there was evidence introduced as to such issue and the evidence was sufficient to sustain a finding in favor of the complaining party if the omitted findings might have the effect of countervailing or destroying the effect of the other findings (24 Cal.Jur. 940-941; Powell v. Johnson, 50 Cal.App.2d 680, 683 [123 P.2d 875]; Wilcox v. West,

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Bluebook (online)
139 P.2d 49, 59 Cal. App. 2d 528, 1943 Cal. App. LEXIS 350, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/petersen-v-murphy-calctapp-1943.