Seaward v. Malotte

Citations

• 15 Cal. 304

Syllabus

<p>On appeal, the Supreme Court notices only the errors committed against the appellant, not those committed against the successful party.</p> <p>Where a Mexican grant refers, in its description of the premises, to the plat or map accompanying the expediente, the plat or map becomes, for the purpose of identifying the land, as much a part of the grant itself, as if incorporated therein.</p> <p>A tract of land was held by several tenants in common, and on partition, a certain portion was set apart and quit-claimed to plaintiff, representing M., who had conveyed to plaintiff as security for indorsements. Another portion of the land was set apart and quit-claimed to H. The portion thus received by H. was subsequently conveyed to plaintiff, and embraces the land in controversy. Held, that plaintiff is not mortgagee of the premises; that even if he held the premises conveyed by H. to him as security for the indorsements of M., it was as trustee of the legal title; that the title had passed from H., and had never been in M., except of an undivided interest before the partition, and was, therefore, in plaintiff, who could maintain ejectment.</p> <p>Questions arising on a trial as to proper parties plaintiff, as to the validity and effect of a Mexican grant from which plaintiff deraigned title, as to its los's and contents, and as to the validity and effect of the mesne conveyances through which plaintiff claimed, and as to whether the proceedings in the Probate Court showed jurisdiction in said Court to make orders, by virtue of which sales were had, resulting in deeds, through which plaintiff in part claimed, were matters for the Court alone, and not for the jury.</p> <p>It is error for the Court to instruct the jury that before the plaintiff can recover, the evidence must specifically fix and establish the eastern boundary line of the grant under which plaintiff claimed, when it appears from the evidence that the land in controversy is within that boundary line. The prec