From Casetext: Smarter Legal Research

Harkins v. Nelson

Supreme Court of California
Nov 1, 1878
53 Cal. 316 (Cal. 1878)

Opinion

         Appeal from the District Court of the Twelfth Judicial District, County of San Mateo.

         Action to quiet title to real estate described as follows in plaintiff's State patent: " All that certain tract of land situate in the County of San Mateo, State of California, and being the south half of the southwest quarter of section thirty-one (31), and lot number four (4) in township five (5) south, range four (4) west, Mount Diablo meridian, containing one hundred and twenty-nine 36(100) acres of land."

         Plaintiff had judgment, and defendants appealed therefrom, and from the order denying their motion for a new trial.

         COUNSEL:

         M. A. Wheaton, for Appellants.

          Newhall, Carson & Phelan, for Respondent.


         JUDGES: McKinstry, J.

         OPINION

          McKINSTRY, Judge

         The action is to " quiet title" to the south half of the southwest quarter of section thirty-one in a certain township, and to lot four in the same section. The township lines were run and platted in 1852, and the section surveyed in 1854. The plaintiff proved, at least prima facie, the location of the southwest corner of the township, by showing the point at which has stood since 1861 a post " marked with U.S. Surveyor's marks that indicated that it was the corner post." It is obvious that the south half of section thirty-one was bounded on the south and west by the south and west lines of the township.

         The testimony of Easton, defendant's witness, did not tend to prove that the post, or the marks on it, had been simulated, and were not the real post or marks of the United States Surveyor, nor did his testimony tend to prove that the post had been moved from the point where it had been originally placed by the Surveyor. It was therefore not error to reject the testimony of Brown, who was proceeding to testify to the same facts to which witness Easton testified.

         Judgment and order affirmed.


Summaries of

Harkins v. Nelson

Supreme Court of California
Nov 1, 1878
53 Cal. 316 (Cal. 1878)
Case details for

Harkins v. Nelson

Case Details

Full title:JOHN HARKINS v. THOMAS NELSON et al.

Court:Supreme Court of California

Date published: Nov 1, 1878

Citations

53 Cal. 316 (Cal. 1878)

Citing Cases

Peters v. Gracia

         The survey relied upon by plaintiff was faulty, in that it started at a monument in another and…

Burke v. McCowen

A. Cooper, for Respondent.          Appellant's contention "that the description by map of lots cannot be…