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50 Cal. 333

Mahon v. Richardson

California Supreme Court

Decided July 1, 1875

California Supreme Court · decided 1875-07-01

Ejectment to recover a tract of land in Marin-County,-and described in the complaint as follows: “Commencing at a point in the township line between townships one and two north, range six west, thirty-three chains west of the northeast corner of section four; thence running east-on-said township line to a point where it strikes the Murphy ranch boundary; thence following said Murphy ranch boundary-line to a point where it strikes the southerly boundary of swamp and…

Cited by 1 later decisions — most recently June 1905

1 state decisions

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1875-07-01

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By the Court:

¶1In making the survey on which the patent issued, it was the duty of the county surveyor, under the statute, to connect it with the lines of the government survey. In performing this duty, he was the agent of the State, and was the only person authorized by law to perform it. The uncontradicted evidence shows that the survey made in the field commenced at a stake marked X, driven into the ground in the presence of the plaintiff, and the third course terminated at a stake in the line of the Buckalew ranch. The first-named stake has disappeared, but its exact location was fully established at the trial by the testimony of the county surveyor, and of the plaintiff himself. The stake in the line of the Buckalew ranch still remains, and was fully identified at the trial. There is incorporated into the patent the field notes of the survey, calling for these stakes, and the patent describes the land conveyed as that included in the survey. It does not purport to convey any land not so included, and as it calls for visible monuments on the ground, established at the time of the survey, and the precise location of which is clearly established by the evidence, in which there is no conflict on this point, there can be no doubt that the patent must be limited to the land actually surveyed in the field, and can include no other.

¶2Judgment and order reversed, and cause remanded for a new trial.

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