Hellman v. City of Los Angeles

Citations

• 125 Cal. 383
• 58 P. 10
• 1899 Cal. LEXIS 868

Syllabus

<p>Action to Quiet Title—Boundary of Street—Oross-Oomplaint of City—Uncertainty.—In an action against a city to quiet title to a lot of land involving the boundary of a street, a cross-complaint by the city against the plaintiff and other defendants brought in as parties to quiet the title of the city to the street, which is alleged to have been encroached upon by their improvements, but which does not locate the boundaries of the street, nor show to what extent their improvements have encroached upon it, is demurrable for uncertainty in those particulars.</p> <p>Id—Evidence—Location of Boundary—Loss of Monuments—Conformity of Street Improvements to Lot Improvements.— Where it appeared in evidence that all of the monuments of the official survey of a street were lost, and the question of fact upon which the rights of appellants depended related to the location of the south boundary of the street, evidence that all of the improvements on such boundary conformed to the line of appellant’s improvements on a corner lot derived by deed from the city, and which had occupied that line for twenty-five years, and that during that period the sidewalk and street improvements were all made to conform to that line, is competent evidence to show the location of such boundary.</p> <p>Id—Incompetent Evidence of Engineers — Inaccurate Survey. Where it appears that the official survey of the street in controversy was inaccurate, and there was no proof as to the lines originally established by it, other than the line of improvements of the lots and sidewalks thereupon, the evidence and maps of engineers not based upon the official survey, but upon the assumed correctness of the line of improvements of another street, and upon the supposition of a uniform width of the streets, and involving the alteration of the length of lots shown by the official map, and constituting mere guesswork as to the location of the lines of the official survey of the street in question, is incompetent and i