Howatt v. Humboldt Milling Co.
Howatt v. Humboldt Milling Co.
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiff sued to quiet title to the south half of the southeast quarter of section 34, township 2 south, range 3. east, Humboldt meridian, and to recover damages from the defendants caused by their cutting and removing trees, timber, and bark therefrom. The complaint was framed in three separate causes of action, the first alleging that the plaintiffs were the owners in fee and entitled to the possession of the premises; the second alleging that the predecessors in interest of the parties plaintiff and *335 defendant, who were the owners respectively of the south half of the southeast quarter of section 34, township 2, and of the north half of the northeast quarter of section 3, township 3, were uncertain as to the location of the true line between their said properties, and with intent to establish such line agreed upon a line commencing at the section corner common to sections 34 and 35 of township 2 and to sections 2 and 3 of township 3 as established, marked and designated on the ground by John M. Ingalls in the year 1872 and running thence west a distance of 2,960 feet in a straight line which, if extended, would intersect the section corner common to sections 33 and 34 of township 2 and sections 3 and 4 of township 3 as established by S. W. Foreman in the year 1875. It was also alleged that in accord with said agreement the respective parties hereto, and their predecessors in interest, continuously acquiesced in and abided by said line as the true line between their respective properties for a period of more than thirty years prior to the 1st of April, 1920, and occupied, used, and erected improvements upon their respective lands up to the common boundary line which was then established; the third alleging that between the first day of April, 1920, to the commencement of the action the defendants, without the consent of the plaintiffs, entered upon a portion of the land claimed by plaintiffs and cut and removed therefrom trees, timber, and bark growing thereon to plaintiffs’ damage in the sum of $10,000. The answer to the first cause of action was a general denial based upon a want of information and belief. To the second cause of action the defendants interposed a defense that the boundary line as claimed by the plaintiffs is not the true line established by the United States government; that the survey made by Ingalls in 1872 was merely for the purpose of establishing the exterior lines of township 2 and that said survey was not approved by the United States surveyor-general until after a survey by S. W. Foreman covering both townships and section lines had been made, filed, and approved; that the true boundary line between the properties of the respective parties is the line established by said Foreman in 1874 in accordance with the survey made by him in which the corner common to sections 34, 35, 2 and 3 is different from the corner known as the Ingalls comer; that the boundary line claimed by *336 the plaintiffs ran some 400 feet south of the township line surveyed and established by said Foreman. The answer also denied that the predecessors of the parties at any time agreed upon the common boundary line or that they acquiesced in the line claimed by the plaintiffs. The defendants did not deny the allegation relating to entry upon the premises and the cutting and removing of timber therefrom, but did deny that the plaintiffs were damaged by any act of theirs.
On the issues so joined the trial court found that all the allegations contained in plaintiffs’ complaint were true except as to the amount of damages sustained by plaintiffs and that the amount of damages was $4,692.85. Special findings were made to .the effect that the subdivisional survey of township 2 south of range 3 east, Humboldt meridian, and the official plan of said township, approved January 11, ,1876, and filed in the local land office at Eureka, California, January 18, 1876, and by reference to which the land in said .township was sold, were based on the survey of the south ¡line of said township made by Ingalls in 1872, and that ¡said survey was the last approved and accepted survey of ¡the south line of said township. It was also found that at ¡all times mentioned in the complaint plaintiffs and their predecessors in interest were the owners in fee and entitled to the possession of the lands described in the complaint, and that the true line or boundary between the premises of the respective parties is the township line established by Ingalls in 1872 commencing at the .corner of sections 34, 35, 2 and 3, 'and running in a straight' line westerly, which if continued would intersect the section corner common to sections 33, 34, 3 and 4 as established by Foreman in 1874, as shown upon plaintiffs’ exhibits 1, 3 and 4. Judgment followed in favor of plaintiffs, quieting their title to the lands described in their complaint and awarding them damages in the sum of $4,692.85. From this judgment the defendants appeal on a bill of exceptions.
On this appeal appellants attack the judgment upon the ground that the findings of fact made by the trial court were not supported by the evidence. The grounds presented on the appeal may be stated as follows: (1) That the evidence is insufficient to support the finding as to the true location of the township or boundary line dividing the lands *337 of the respective parties; (2) that the evidence is insufficient to show an agreement between the parties establishing such boundary line, and (3) that the evidence is insufficient to show that the respondents acquired title to the land in dispute by adverse possession.
Appellants insist that the element of uncertainty as to the true boundary which is necessary to invoke the rule of an “agreed boundary” is lacking, but it appears in the evidence that in the early days Mrs. Wilds, predecessor in interest of the appellants, and Logan, predecessor in interest of the respondents, had several conversations concerning the location of this line; that Logan at first was unable to locate the corner and asked Mrs. Wilds if she knew where it was to be found; that in response thereto she sent her son Nathan Sanford, a witness in this case, to the Ingalls corner with directions to him to point out such corner to Logan; that Mrs. Wilds and Logan had several conversations concerning the location of the line, some of which occurred down on the line near the river-bar, and that as a result of said conversations they determined that a fence which Logan had erected was below the line and they thereupon agreed to and did move the fence .and put it upon the line between them; that Mrs. Wilds, being doubtful as to the location of a spring, had a special survey made in order to determine whether the spring was within the line of her property. There is sufficient here to sustain the finding of the trial court that the predecessors in interest of the parties hereto were uncertain as to the location of the true line between their properties and that, with the intent to establish such line, they agreed with each other that the boundary line between their respective properties should be the line commencing at the Ingalls corner and running west to the Foreman corner, as claimed by the respondents in this action. The “agreed” boundary rule is correctly stated in
Young
v.
Blakeman,
153 Cal. 477, 481 [95 Pac. 888, 889], from which we quote: “When such owners, being uncertain of the ■true position of the boundary so described, agree upon its true location, mark it upon the ground, or build up to it, occupy on each side up to the place thus fixed and acquiesce
*340
in such location for a period equal to the statute of limitations, or under such circumstances that substantial loss would be caused by a change of its position, such line becomes, in law, the true line called for by the respective descriptions, regardless of the accuracy, of the agreed location, as it may appear by subsequent measurements.” (See, also,
Loustalot
v.
McKeel,
157 Cal. 634, 640 [108 Pac. 707].)
Judgment affirmed.
A petition for a rehearing of this cause was denied by the district court of appeal on April 10, 1923, and a petition to have the cause heard in the supreme court, after judgment in the district court of appeal, was denied by the supreme court on May 7, 1923.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- UNA LOGAN HOWATT Et Al., Respondents, v. HUMBOLDT MILLING COMPANY (A Corporation), Et Al., Appellants
- Cited By
- 6 cases
- Status
- Published