Taft v. Tarpey

Citations

• 125 Cal. 376
• 58 P. 24
• 1899 Cal. LEXIS 867

Syllabus

<p>Reservation of Wat—Dedication—Presumption—The reservation in a deed of a strip of land “for canal or road purposes, both or either,” so far as the language discloses, is for the benefit of the grantor alone; and in such case, or where the way is for the benefit of both parties to the deed, no presumption arises of any intent to dedicate the way to public use as a highway.</p> <p>Id—Effect of Public User—It is only by actual user, and to the extent of such user by the public as a highway, that the public can acquire rights in any portion of a strip reserved for road and ditch purposes in a deed; and no such rights result from the terms of the deed.</p> <p>Id.—Reservation of Adjoining Strips — Road and Ditch Purposes—User—Injunction.—Where similar reservations are made by the same grantor in deeds of adjoining lands to different persons at different times of two adjoining strips, one upon each tract, and each thirty feet in width, for road and ditch purposes, and where the junior grantee occupied the outer half of the strip upon his land for an irrigating ditch, and for trees and vines, for over six years, and only the middle thirty feet of the adjoining strips was in fact used by the first grantee and by the public for road purposes during that period, he may be enjoined thereafter from threatened interference with such ditch, trees and vines, upon the alleged ground that both strips were wholly dedicated to public use as a highway by force of the reservations.</p> <p>Evidence—Width of Land Occupied by Ditch and Trees—Both parties to the deeds of the adjoining lands having acted upon the assumption that they were keeping within their respective rights, and fifteen feet having been left upon each side of the road, evidence is admissible to show that the width of the land continuously occupied by the ditch, trees and vines was fifteen feet.</p> <p>Id.—Custom of Grantor as to Reservations—Declarations— Conveyance to Witness.—Declarations of the common grantor as to h