De Guyer v. Banning

Citations

• 3 Cal. Unrep. 321
• 25 P. 252
• 1890 Cal. LEXIS 1186

Syllabus

<p>Mexican Grants—Description—Confirmation—Conflicting Patents.—In ejectment, plaintiffs claimed under a Mexican grant that had been confirmed by the federal district court in 1857, and had been patented to plaintiffs by the United States in 1858, in accordance with the decree of confirmation which described the land by specified boundaries, giving lines and monuments.. The survey made by the surveyor general in carrying out the decree of confirmation conformed to the exterior boundaries, as described in the decree, which mentioned no reservation within the limits of these exterior boundaries. There was a clause in the certificate of survey which read: “Excepting, reserving, and excluding from the tract, as thus surveyed, that portion thereof covered by the navigable waters of the inner bay of San Pedro, and which are included within the following described lines.” The land in controversy was an island lying within these lines. This island, together with other land, lying within the inner survey, was patented to defendant by the United States in 1881. Held, that the Mexican grant, as confirmed and patented by the United States to plaintiff, included the whole space lying within its exterior boundaries, and that defendant had acquired no title under his patent.</p>