Swarzwald v. Cooley

103 P.2d 580, 39 Cal. App. 2d 306, 1940 Cal. App. LEXIS 398
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 28, 1940
DocketCiv. 12496
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 103 P.2d 580 (Swarzwald v. Cooley) 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
Swarzwald v. Cooley, 103 P.2d 580, 39 Cal. App. 2d 306, 1940 Cal. App. LEXIS 398 (Cal. Ct. App. 1940).

Opinion

MOORE, P. J.

This action involves two adjacent beach lots in Laguna Beach. The owners sued each other to establish the length of their common lateral boundary. This is the second appeal. At the first trial, defendant Cooley had judgment on his cross-complaint, fixing the length of said common boundary at 376 feet. On appeal, the Supreme Court reversed the judgment, Swarzwald v. Cooley, 220 Cal. 438 [31 Pac. (2d) 381]. In its opinion, the Supreme Court thus defined the issues: “The record shows an action by plaintiffs Swarzwald and a cross-action by defendant Cooley, both in form to quiet title and to locate the oceanward extremity of a common boundary line. The bank and the other defendants are only nominally interested in the result of this litigation, the former being the trustee and the latter beneficiaries under a real estate subdivision trust, of which the lands in question are a part.

“The controlling question is the true location of the common point in the line of ordinary high tide, or mean high tide, of the Pacific Ocean, which, in May and June, 1937, marked the southerly terminus of the northwest boundary line of lot 9 and the like terminus of the southeast boundary line of lot 8, both situate in a subdivision of Laguna Beach lands in Orange County, California, officially designated as Arch Palisades No. 2.

“Description of these lots originates in the southwest boundary line of the state coast highway. They are each 100 feet in width along this highway and the laterals are uniform lines parallel to each other and perpendicular to said highway line, terminating in said mean high tide line, or ordinary *311 high tide line, of the ocean. After meeting said tide line, lot 8 extends in the shape of a tongue or promontory several hundred feet farther into deep water. The two lots are a part of some 17 lots in said subdivision, all of which originate at said highway line, have fairly uniform side lines and in a similar manner meet said tide line as their southerly boundary. Lot 17 is similarly situated, with respect to the said promontory feature, to lot 8. Although a regular subdivision map of said tract was filed in the office of the county recorder of said Orange county on March 26, 1927, these lots were conveyed by a metes and bounds description on a survey presumably made about November 15, 1926.

“The contention of respondent Cooley (defendant and cross-complainant) who prevailed in the court below, is that the northwest boundary of lot 9 is a line exactly 376 feet long, extending from the point of beginning on a course south 59 degrees 21 minutes 30 seconds west from said point of beginning. The contention of appellants Swarzwald (plaintiffs and cross defendants) is that said line terminates, not at 376 feet, but at 592 feet along the same course from the point of beginning, or at least that it is 80 feet longer than 376 feet which would terminate it where the irregular shape of lot 8 juts athwart its course.”

Both lots were purchased from a common grantor, to wit: The Bank of Italy, which held the property in a subdivision trust. The plaintiffs purchased the north half of lot 9 on a contract May 9, 1927. A month later they acquired the south half. Lots 7 and 8 were first sold to one Raymond Griffith on May 2, 1927. Cooley acquired Griffith’s title and after said reversal, the Union Bank and Trust Company took over certain interests from Cooley and was made a party defendant and cross-complainant.

In the Griffith contract, the common boundary was described thus: “thence south 59 degrees, 21 minutes, 30 seconds west 376.00 feet more or less to a point in the line of ordinary high tide”. In plaintiffs’ contract of May 9, 1927, after describing its southeast lateral as “ ... 379 feet more or less to a point in the line of ordinary high tide to the Pacific Ocean; thence northwesterly along the line of ordinary high tide to a point located 376 feet south 59 degrees 21 minutes 30 seconds west from the point of beginning”. Lot 9 in the main extends oceanward on a level with the coast highway *312 till it breaks precipitately at a cliff about. 336 feet from said highway. Between the toe of the cliff and the ocean is a beach or sandy area; The cliff continues across lot 9 in the same general northwesterly direction into 'lot 8 and, after making a large indentation or “cove” in the southerly side of lot 8, it continues its irregular line back across said common boundary leaving a portion of said promontory and its abutting flat rock within lot 9. West of said “cove” said promontory continues to its end fairly on a level .with the front portion of said lot 8.

On the second trial plaintiff had judgment. The court made a finding that the southeasterly boundary of lot 9 ran •385 feet from the highway to a point in the ordinary high tide; thence northwesterly along the line of ordinary high tide to the point of its intersection with said common boundary ; that said point of intersection is 581.45 feet more or less, south 59 degrees, 21 minutes, 30 seconds west from the point of beginning in the highway and not 376 feet from the highway as the parties believed at the time of purchase.. Said point of intersection is in the end of said rocky promontory about 265 feet south of the toe of the cliff. But the return ■of the line of said cliff after, making said indentation into lot 9 cuts off access to the ocean across said sandy beach of lot 9. Because of the loss of said right of access to the ocean from the southerly side of lot'8, defendants prosecute this appeal.

The grounds upon which defendants seek a reversal of the judgment are as follows: (1) That the judgment is not supported either by a finding or by evidence upon which the finding could be based as to the location of -.the line of ordb nary high tide on May 9 or June 10, 1927 ;■• (2) that the judgment deprives said defendants of property which had been sold to their predecessor Griffith prior to plaintiff’s acquisition of said lot 9; that the court erred in not holding that the phrase “line of ordinary high tide” should not be given its meaning commonly accepted rather than its technical meaning; (4) that giving precedence to the reference to th.e line of ordinary high tide, which was inserted by conjecture produces an absurd result contrary to the manifest intention of the parties; (5) that the original sale of lot, 8 to Griffith carried with it an easement, by implication; of access to the water across the beach in .front of lot 9 and plaintiff took title subject to such easement.

*313 I- The court found that said point in the common boundary 376 feet from the highway, mentioned in plaintiffs’ said contract was not in the line of ordinary high tide; but that by actual survey of the court’s surveyor, A. J. Stead, it is shown that said common boundary does not intersect the ordinary or mean high tide line until it has been extended a distance of 581.45 feet from said highway, and that, contrary to defendants’ contentions, no one of the parties acted under a mistake of fact that the point 376 feet from the said highway, on said common boundary, ended at the line of ordinary high tide or that the same was the entire northwesterly boundary of said lot 9 or that said 376 feet exactly represented the distance of the ordinary high tide line from said highway; but that they both believed that said distance was always more or less.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
103 P.2d 580, 39 Cal. App. 2d 306, 1940 Cal. App. LEXIS 398, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/swarzwald-v-cooley-calctapp-1940.