Holladay v. City & County of San Francisco

Citations

• 124 Cal. 352
• 57 P. 146
• 1899 Cal. LEXIS 998

Syllabus

<p>Pueblo Lands of San Francisco—Title of United States—Qualified Rights of City.—The title to the unappropriated pueblo lands of San Francisco passed to the United States upon the conquest of California in 1846;' though the city, as successor of the pueblo, had an inchoate and imperfect right thereto, qualified as a trust ■for the benefit of the inhabitants of the city, and subject to governmental control. The city could not alienate the lands in violation of the trust; nor could it by ordinance divest the power of Congress to modify its inchoate rights. The lands were confirmed to the city by Congress, with such restrictions as it chose to impose, and for the uses and purposes specified in the ordinances of the city ratified by the state legislature March 11, 1858.</p> <p>Id.—Operation of Van Ness Ordinance — State and Congressional Legislation.—The Yan Ness ordinance passed by the common council of San Francisco, in 1855, granting the pueblo lands to persons in possession thereof, with the exception of lands reserved for streets and other public purposes, was provisional in its effect, and not operative per se, but derived its operative force from tbe ratification thereof by the state legislature and the relinquishment of the title of the United States to tbe city by Congress for the uses and purposes specified in that and other ordinances ratified by the legislature of the state.</p> <p>Id.—Title of Possessors—Obligation of Contract—Public Square-Adverse Possession.—The Van Ness ordinance granted only such title to possessors as the city whs permitted by Congress and the state to convey; and it did not operate as a contract of the ■city with the possessors of land reserved as a public square, and so create an obligation beyond legislative impairment. Compensation was not required to be made to adverse possessors of part of such square; nor could title be acquired thereto by adverse possession.</p> <p>Id.—Reservation of Lafayette Park—Ordinance No. 845—Van Ness M