Sneed v. Osborn

25 Cal. 619, 1864 Cal. LEXIS 78
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 1, 1864
StatusPublished
Cited by62 cases

This text of 25 Cal. 619 (Sneed v. Osborn) 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
Sneed v. Osborn, 25 Cal. 619, 1864 Cal. LEXIS 78 (Cal. 1864).

Opinions

By the Court, Rhodes, J.

On the 19th of March, 1847, Salvador Vallejo conveyed to L. W. Boggs one square mile of land in Napa Valley, bounded as follows : “ Beginning at a point near the base of the mountain on the west side of Napa Valley, one half a mile in a southerly direction from where a small branch or brook enters the valley from the mountains, usually known as the Old Rhodare; thence running from the said point of beginning along a line parallel with the base of the mountains, in a northerly direction one mile; thence forming a right angle and running in an easterly direction one mile; thence making a right angle and running in a southerly direction one mile ; thence making a right angle and running in a westerly direction one mile to the point of beginning.”

Vallejo conveyed to Harrison, on the 5th of April, 1847, one square mile of land, the only description of the boundaries being as follows : “ Bounded on the north by a certain tract of one square mile, which said Vallejo sold to L. W. Boggs, by deed bearing date the 19th day of March, A. D. 1847.” Subsequent to the deed, and about the last of April of the same year, Vallejo and Boggs went on the land, and caused a survey of the same to be made by Surveyor Ide, who set stakes at the southeast, the northeast and northwest corners, [624]*624and directed the parties where to set the stake at the southwest corner, at a certain distance north of where he had set the stake for the first station; and the southern, eastern and northern lines were marked. The position of the initial point is uncertain. Probably no two men would take the deed, and going on the land separately, fix upon the same place for the initial point, for the place where the creek enters the valley— the line where the hills terminate and the valley begins—is difficult of ascertainment, there being a gradual slope of the hills to the valley; and the “OldRhodare,” which the parties understood to mean rodeo grounds, is a tract which may include from a few acres to five hundred acres. In view of this uncertainty, the parties went on the land for the puipose of establishing the lines, and in the first place agreed upon a certain tree on the bank of the creek, as the initial point; but on the surveyor measuring thence south half a mile and setting the first station and running from thence the southern line, the parties, after some controversy as to the land to be included, agreed.that the first station should be set to the north such a distance, that the southern line should not cross Dry Creek-; and the lines were run and marked and corner stakes were set accordingly, the western line not being actually run or marked, but directions being given for setting the stake at its southern extremity, so as to accord with the southern line as run.

At the time of the sale to Boggs, Vallejo owned the land adjoining the Boggs tract and the land adjoining the Harrison tract, and there can be no doubt, upon principle or authority, that under such circumstances, and considering the uncertain description of the deed, it was competent for the parties to locate the land, and establish the boundary lines between the tract conveyed and the remaining lands of the grantor. This could be done by them while the grantor owned, the adjoining land, and the lines thus fixed would be regarded as division lines established by the agreement of coterminous proprietors. To be effectual for any purpose, it must-be done while the parties owti the lands on both sides of the line they thus locate. If the square mile sold to Boggs had contained all the lands [625]*625that Vallejo owned in that place, Vallejo, after the sale of it, would have had no greater control over the location of the land than a stranger to the title.

Harrison did not participate in'the Ide survey, and there is no evidence in the record, showing that he assented to or acquiesced in it in any manner. He owned the land south of the Boggs tract at the time of the survey, and was unaffected by any agreement respecting the lines of the Boggs tract, to which he was not a party.

In 1852, the northwest quarter of the Harrison tract was conveyed to the respondent, and in 1853, there was conveyed to the appellant all of the southwest quarter of the Harrison tract, except ten acres in the northeast corner of the southwest quarter, which had been conveyed in 1852 to McNiel, who conveyed the same to the respondent in 1857. The respondent is in possession of the northwest quarter and the ten acre tract, and the appellant is in possession of the southwest quarter less the ten acre tract, measuring the land from the southern line of the Ide survey as the base.

The respondent now claims that the Ide survey was incorrect ; that the southern line was run about six chains too far to the north; that upon the Harrison tract being surveyed and subdivided according to the true southern line of the Boggs tract, the northwest quarter and the ten acre tract will include two parcels of land within the northern part of the southwest quarter, as claimed and occupied by the appellant, of the width of six chains, and both together extending across the southwest quarter, and containing twenty-four acres. He-sued to recover the possession of the northwest quarter and the ten acre tract, and the Court found • for him, and gave judgment for the possession of the premises sued for.

What we have already said indicates that we agree with the appellant in his first and second propositions, but that his third proposition, viz: that “ the agreed location must control, and should prevail,” cannot be maintained, because there is no evidence that Harrison or the plaintiff or those through whom he claims, joined in running the line in controversy, [626]*626or at the time it was run, directly assented to it, as established by the Ide survey.

There is another consideration applicable to a part, at least, of the case, that counsel have not particularly urged, but which is of too much importance to be passed over without notice. In eighteen hundred and fifty-four, while McMel was the owner of the ten acre tract, and the appellant owned the residue of what he claims as the southwest quarter, the appellant directed a survey to be made of the ten acre tract, so that he might know where to build his fences, and the survey was accordingly made. It does not appear whether or not McMel was present, but he soon after the survey built his fences on the land as surveyed, and thereafter occupied the land until he sold it to the respondent, who since that time has held it as fenced by McMel, and the appellant has since the survey held the land adjoining it on the south and west. The record contains no evidence of any objection being made by McMel or the respondent, to the lines of the ten acre tract as surveyed and fenced, from the time of the survey to the commencement of this action in eighteen hundred and sixty. The acts of the parties might not amount to an agreement between them, to locate the tract as then surveyed, and it is unnecessary to consider them in that view; but do they not show an acquiescence by the parties in those lines as the division lines between the two tracts of land ? If they do show such acquiescence it will make no difference in the result that they acted in ignorance or under a mistake, as to the true northern line of the southwest quarter of the Harrison tract.

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Bluebook (online)
25 Cal. 619, 1864 Cal. LEXIS 78, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sneed-v-osborn-cal-1864.