Ohm v. City & County of San Francisco

Citations

• 3 Cal. Unrep. 314
• 25 P. 155
• 1890 Cal. LEXIS 1190

Syllabus

<p>Mexican Grants—Validity—Possession.—A Mexican grant of eight hundred varas square, “at a place called Rincon, embraced within the limitation of Yerba Buena,” is so vague and uncertain that nothing passes by force of the grant alone, nor will it be helped out by possession taken under it by the grantee, as the Mexican law, then in force, required possession to be given “by judicial authority, with the citation of all those bounded upon him.”</p> <p>Mexican Grants—Validity—Record.—Such grant is also fatally defective, where the original application, to which is attached each successive paper or certificate up to and including the final grant, fails to show on its face that the grant was made with the approval of the pueblo, of the governor, and of the departmental assembly, and that a record of such fact was made in the public archives, as required by the laws of Mexico then in force.</p> <p>Evidence—Judicial Notice.—Under Code of Civil Procedure, section 1875, subdivision 3, which permits courts to take judicial notice of the acts of the judicial department of the state, the supreme court will judicially notice the vacation of a decree confirming a Mexican grant.</p> <p>Mexican Grants—Action for Possession.—One Wlio Alleges that he has a perfect title to land under a Mexican grant, not barred by the statute of limitations, may maintain a legal action for the possession, and there is no necessity for the interference of a court of equity to enable him to assert his rights.</p> <p>Mexican Grants—Limitation of Actions.—Since the Passage of Statutes of 1863, page 327, which gives five years “from the date of its passage” in which one claiming title to land under a Spanish or Mexican grant may commence an action for its enforcement, the want of confirmation, patent, or survey of such a grant by the United States government has not operated to interrupt the running of the statute.</p> <p>Pleading.—Where a Pleader, in His Complaint, alleges a fact, and then sets out the