Heirs of Nieto v. Carpenter

Citations

• 21 Cal. 455

Syllabus

<p>Although a previous ruling of the Appellate Court upon a point directly made is, as to all subsequent proceedings, a final adjudication, yet when the ruling relates to a matter of fact it can only be invoked where the fact reappears under the same circumstances in which it was originally presented.</p> <p>Thus where, on a previous appeal, a document in the Spanish language was construed and its legal effect declared, the decision being based upon an erroneous translation of the instrument, and on a second appeal a different and correct translation was presented: Held, that the Appellate Court was not bound by the former decision, so far as it was induced by the inaccuracy of the translation.</p> <p>Presumptions are only indulged to supply the absence of facts. There can be no presumption against ascertained and established facts. The presumption, therefore, of a grant from the long possession of land is repelled and destroyed by the production or proof of the instrument under which the possession was held.</p> <p>To establish a prescriptive title under the Spanish law or to constitute a foundation for adverse possession at the common law, the instrument under which the occupant entered and claims the premises must purport in its terms to transfer the title—must be such as would in fact pass the title, had it been executed by the true owner in proper form (with the exception perhaps of a contract to convey after payment of the consideration) and the occupant must have entered under it in good faith, in the belief that he had a good right to the premises, and with the intention to hold them against the whole world.</p> <p>A petition presented to a Mexican Governor for the purpose of obtaining a grant of land is no part of the grant. It is only the declaration of the party who f made it, or of the party by whose authority it was made, and is open to explanation.</p> <p>The grant is the operative instrument, and the representations made to the Governor cannot control