Taylor v. McConigle

Citations

• 120 Cal. 123
• 52 P. 159
• 1898 Cal. LEXIS 721

Syllabus

<p>Boundary of Mexican Grant—Thread of Changeable Stream—Course at Time of Official Survey—Appeal—Support of Finding—Conflicting Evidence.—In an action to quiet title to a strip of land, the boundary of which is determined by the location of the thread of a changeable stream in the course occupied by it at the time of the survey of a Mexican grant by the United States surveyor, upon a decree of confirmation thereof, where the evidence is substantially conflicting as to its location at that time, the finding of the court below thereupon cannot be disturbed upon appeal.</p> <p>Id.—Description in Patent—Fieldnotes of Survey—Location of Thread of Stream—Calls for Fixed Points and Courses and Distances.— Where the fieldnotes of the survey, which constitute the description in the United States patent confirming a Mexican grant, make certain calls for fixed points and courses and distances therefrom to the thread of a stream on the east side of the land in contest, which lead to a place where such thread might naturally have been, and where witnesses testified and the court found that it was located at the time of the survey, such other calls strongly tend to show that the thread was where they indicate, and that the surveyor intended to locate it and did locate it there, and the conclusion of the court that it was there located is strongly confirmed by such fieldnotes.</p> <p>Id.—Evidence—Oral Declarations of Grantors—Hearsay.—Oral declarations of the grantors of the plaintiff in an action to quiet title are hearsay and inadmissible against defendants who do not claim or hold title under the parties who made the declaration.</p> <p>Id.—Survey and Map Referred to in Deeds.—An old survey and map generally known, and referred to in deeds as matter of description, are admissible in evidence in connection with the deeds, and also with the testimony of witnesses for the appellant referring thereto.</p> <p>Id.—Action to Quiet Title—Suit for Tract of Land—Issue as to Narrow Strip