Whitcomb v. Hensley
Whitcomb v. Hensley
Opinion of the Court
Are the lands described in appellant’s muniments of title, as by him offered and read in evidence on the trial, the same lands described in his complaint? seems to have been the ultimate question of fact submitted to the court below and presented on this appeal; or, in other words (there having been no evidence offered in behalf of defendant), does the evidence presented by appellant establish his title to the lands described in his complaint, or any portion thereof ?
The complaint minutely describes the demanded premises by metes and bounds, locating the same as in block No. 4 of White’s survey and addition to the city of San Jose, as laid down on the map of said city, and gives the abuttals of said block No. 4 as Taylor street on the north, Second street on the east, Jackson street on the south, and First street on the west, and further describes the same lands as comprising all of lots numbered 37, 38, 39, 40, 44, 45, 46, 47 and 48 in said block 4 of said White’s addition to said city of San Jose, as the same are marked down on the present map of the said city of San Jose.
On the trial, as evidence of his title to the demanded premises appellant introduced and read a grant made by K. H. Dimmick, as alcalde of the Pueblo de San Jose, to Chester S.
Also a grant made by K. H. Dimmick, as alcalde of the Pueblo de San Jose, to Charles White, dated March 10, 1849, of lands described therein as follows: “All that certain tract or piece of land lying and being in the Pueblo of San Jose and known as White’s Survey executed by C. S. Lyman, Esq., all of Blocks one, two, three and the west half of Block four lying north of and adjoining the original town survey, bounded on the north by Washington Street and east by the east half of Block four, be the same more or less. ’ ’
Also a deed of conveyance from Chester Smith Lyman to Hiram Grimes, dated May 26, 1849, of lands described as follows: “All that certain piece or parcel of land lying and being in the Pueblo de San Jose de Guadalope in the north section of said city and known as lots numbered 37, 38, 39, 40, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48 in Block Number 4 of White’s Survey, executed by C. S. Lyman and now on file in the Alcalde’s office in said Pueblo.”
Also a deed of conveyance from Charles White and wife to Hiram Grimes, dated June 6, 1849, of lands described as follows: “All that certain piece or parcel of land lying and being in the Pueblo de San Jose in the north section of said city and known on the plat of White’s Survey executed by C. S. Lyman, Esq., surveyor, as lots number 37, 38, 39 and 40 in Block No. 4, each lot being fifty varas by about one hundred and fifteen deep.”
Also a deed of conveyance from Hiram Grimes to appellant, dated January 31, 1863, of lands described as follows: “All that certain piece or parcel of land lying and being in the Pueblo de San Jose, Santa Clara County and State of California, in the north section of said city and known as lots number 44, 45, 46, 47, 48 and being the east half of Block 4 of White’s Survey executed by C. S. Lyman and conveyed by K. H. Dimmick 1st Alcalde to Chester S. Lyman dated March 10, 1849 .... also all that piece or parcel of land lying and being in the Pueblo de San Jose in the north sec
No question was made upon the validity of these grants and deeds, or as to the effect of the same being to vest the legal title in appellant to the lands described in his deed from Hiram Grimes, dated January 31, 1863; and plaintiff, on the trial, after having called as witnesses the city clerk of the city of San Jose and the county recorder of the county of Santa Clara, the former of whom testified that he “had in his custody and possession, as such city clerk, all the maps, papers and records belonging to or in the possession of the city of San Jose, as the successor of the former pueblo of San Jose, and that there was no such map or survey as White’s survey executed by C. S. Lyman in his custody as city clerk, and that there was in his custody no map or survey of White’s survey or addition to San Jose of any description except such as appeared upon the map of the city of San Jose,” hereinafter set forth.
The witness then produced a map purporting, upon its face, to be a plat of the city of San Jose with the various additions, made in the year 18'50 by Thomas White, as city surveyor of said city, which said map was in the custody of the city authorities at the time witness entered upon the duties of his office, and that it was the map generally used by the inhabitants of the said city in making conveyances of lands in said city, and the map used by him, in his official capacity, as the map of said city. That there was, also, in his office another map purporting to be a map of the city of San Jose, that it was a lithographed map and was known as the Sherman Day map, which was produced by the witness.
The latter witness testified that there was but one map of the city of San Jose in his office; that that map was the one used by him, that he did not know how it came in his office, that it had no indorsement of any filing upon it. He then produced the map referred to by him, which on comparison appeared to be a lithograph copy of the Sherman Day map, and a duplicate of the map produced by the city clerk.
The Thomas White map was admitted and the Sherman Day map rejected, on the ground that it purported on its face to be a copy — was not in any manner authenticated, and had not been proved to have ever been adopted by competent authority as the map of the city.
The exact location of White’s survey and block No. 4 thereon is the important preliminary fact in arriving at the ultimate facts as to the identity of the lands described in plaintiff’s deed from Grimes with the lands described in his complaint.
The Thomas White map in evidence purports to be a “map of the city of San Jose surveyed and drawn by order of the common council in the year 1850 by Thomas White, city surveyor,” and with its explanatory notes delineates and gives the relative locations and abuttals of the original survey of the pueblo, White’s addition, the city addition, Read’s addition, Cook & Branham’s addition, Nagle and Sansevain’s and Ruckle’s additions. This map, having been made in 1850, clearly is not the map or survey referred to in the original grants of plaintiff’s lands, made March 10, 1849.
From an examination of this Thomas White map and ex-planatorjr notes, White’s addition, as thereon delineated, extends from Julian street on the south to Taylor street on the north, and from Ninth street on the east to the western limits of the city. The explanatory notes state that “White’s addition extends from Julian Street northerly to Taylor Street”; and, although the eastern and western boundaries are not given in the explanatory notes, the same notes do locate Cook & Branham’s addition from Ninth street east to red line below Sixteenth street in a position to preclude the extension of White’s addition easterly beyond Ninth street, and the map does not disclose any addition or survey between White’s addition and Cook & Branham’s.
After the introduction of this map plaintiff called a witness, Thomas Bodley, who testified in substance that he had been a resident of San Jose since 1849, had been a practicing attorney in said city since 1850, and during that period had been extensively engaged as a conveyancer of lands in said city, and dealing in real estate therein. That thefe was but
This is the substance of the entire testimony on the trial, from which it will be observed that upon the important preliminary question, as to the exact boundaries of White’s survey or addition, the evidence afforded by the Thomas White map and that given by witness Thomas Bodley materially conflicts, as by the map with the explanatory notes the eastern boundary of White’s addition is manifestly Ninth street, whereas the evidence of Bodley establishes the eastern boundary of White’s addition by common report of the inhabitants of the city as Seventh street.
All the testimony, however, concurs in establishing the southern boundary of White’s addition as Julian street and the northern boundary as Taylor street, and in locating Washington street as the next street north and parallel with Julian street, Empire street as the next street north of Washington street, Jackson street as the next north of Empire street, and the next south of Taylor street.
The fourth assignment of error seems to have no foundation upon which to rest. It does not appear from the record that the court excluded from consideration the evidence furnished by the Thomas White map of the- city of San Jose, the. only map admitted in evidence on the trial. On the contrary, the court seems to have fully considered such evidence, as it tends most -strongly to sustain the findings.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- ADOLPHUS C. WHITCOMB v. MARY H. HENSLEY
- Status
- Published