Miller v. Bensinger
Miller v. Bensinger
Opinion of the Court
This is an action in ejectment for the recovery of a strip of land less than two feet in width, extending along the side of a lot occupied by the defendant. Judgment was given for the latter, from which and an order denying a new trial the plaintiff appeals.
It appears that the parties bought adjoining lots, under a certain survey. That about twenty-five years after the defendant took possession under his deed, occupied, fenced, and built upon what he supposed to be his lot of land, and which included that in controversy here, it appeared under a new survey for the city and county of San Francisco, where the land is situated, that he had in possession a lot of land wider by not quite two feet than his deed called for; and that the lot in possession of the plaintiff was thirty feet wide, less the same number of inches. Hence the plaintiff claimed that the defendant was by mistake in possession of a part of her lot, and sued for it.
The only question at issue, as we think, is whether the evidence supports the findings of fact in reference to the defense of the statute of limitations under sections 318 and 319
I concur: Vanclief, C.
For the reasons given in the foregoing opinion the judgment and order are affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- MILLER v. BENSINGER
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Ejectment—Adverse Possession—Evidence.—In Ejectment for a Strip of land a few inches in width between adjoining lots, where it appeared that defendant had been for about twenty-five years in possession of the strip, which was by a survey included in his deed, when another survey was made, showing the strip to belong to plaintiff's lot, defendant’s testimony that his occupancy was under a claim of right to hold the same adversely to plaintiff and the whole world is sufficient to support a finding for defendant as by prescription, though it also appeared that after the latter survey defendant offered to surrender the strip if plaintiff would pay the expense of moving the house which extended onto it.