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5 Cal. 87

Potter v. Knowles

California Supreme Court

Decided July 1, 1855

California Supreme Court · decided 1855-07-01

The action was ejectment for a lot in San Francisco. The case being tried by the Court without a jury, the Court found the following facts: That the plaintiff in the year 1853, was the lawful owner of the promises in dispute ; that his Attorney permitted one Angus McDonwell to enter upon the premises, for the purj>ose of grading and hauling stone from the same.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1855-07-01

How this case has been cited

Cited by 7 later decisions — most recently November 1920

7 state decisions

3018551860187018801890190019101920decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Heydenfeldt, J., delivered the opinion of the Court.

¶1Murray, C. J., concurred.

¶2When McDonnell the grantor of the defendant, went into possession by license or permission of the plaintiff’s agent, his possession became that of the plaintiff—and upon this prior possession, the latter is entitled to recover. In Adams on Ejectment, the rule in such cases is laid down thus:—“It has already been observed, that possession is prima facie evidence of ownership ; and as between two parties who rely upon possession solely, the presumption is in favor of the first possessor ; so that proof of possession by a claimant, however short, will entitle him to recover, unless the defendant can account for such possession, or show a prior possession or title in himself, or a third person.”

¶3It only remains to add, that the new trial upon the affidavits filed wan properly denied.

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