Majority
Headnote
[1] Claim; and Delivery — Possession of Land Under Claim of Eight—Eight to Crops.—In an action in claim and delivery, the ■plaintiff cannot support a right to the recovery of a certain crop ■of potatoes upon the theory that he is the owner and entitled to the possession of the land upon which the potatoes were grown and that the defendant was a trespasser and in occupation of the land without any right whatsoever, where the evidence shows that the defendant was in possession of the premises under a claim of right.This is an action in claim and delivery whereby the plaintiff demands the recovery of a certain crop of potatoes, growing, at the time of the commencement of this action, on approximately six acres of land, situate on Mildred Island, San Joaquin County.
It appears that the plaintiff, upon the issuance of summons in the action, which was commenced on September 12, 1921, claimed delivery of the potatoes to him (sec. 509, Code Civ. Proc.), and, in pursuance of sections 510, 511 and 512 of said code, the same were seized and taken by the sheriff. It was stipulated that the quantity of potatoes taken from the ground by the sheriff under the writ of replevin consisted of 818 sacks, of the aggregate value of $1,249.66, and that of the 818 sacks so taken 370 sacks were sold by the plaintiff.
In the month of March, 1921, the defendant, Seid Pak Yuen, under what purported to be a lease from one Joseph Pavliger and dated “March, 1921,” the day of said month not appearing in the lease, entered into the possession of 110 acres of land situated on said Mildred Island. Said lease comprised four different parcels of land, the same having •come down to Pavliger through one Louis Sanders from as many different grantors.
The amended complaint alleges that on or before the eighth day of March, 1921, plaintiff was the owner and in actual possession of the lands comprising the whole of Mildred Island, and that on the eighth day of March, 1921, the defendants entered upon the six acres in question “against the will and without the consent of plaintiff and without claim or color of title on the part of defendants or either of them; that thereafter defendants planted thereon a crop of potatoes which is now in said ground and in a condition to be harvested”; that plaintiff is the owner of and entitled to the possession of all of said potatoes now growing on said tract of land and that the same is wrongfully detained by the defendants.
The court found that the said defendant entered into and took possession of the six acres of land in question “in good faith and as the tenant of one Joseph Pavliger, under a claim of right and color of title, and that he thereupon planted thereon a crop of potatoes, raised said crop of potatoes and the same was in condition to be harvested at the time of the commencement of plaintiff’s action on the twelfth day of September, 1921, and that at the time of the commencement of plaintiff’s action the defendant was, ever since has been, and he now is in possession of said tract of six acres under a claim of right and color of title and in good faith and adverse to the claims of the plaintiff; . . . ; that the plaintiff is not, nor at the time of said seizure was, the owner of or entitled to the possession of all or any part of said 818 sacks of potatoes grown upon said tract,” and that, “it is not true that the whole or any part of said potatoes is or was wrongfully detained by the defendants or either of them from the plaintiff.” The judgment was that the plaintiff return to the defendant said 818' sacks of potatoes or the value thereof, “and as said potatoes cannot be returned on account of sales made by the plaintiff, defendant, Seid Pak Yuen, is entitled to recover the value thereof, to wit, the sum of $1,249.66, together with interest on said sum of $1,249.66 from the twelfth day of September, 1921.”
The appeal is by the plaintiff from said judgment.
The only evidence produced by the plaintiff in support of his claim of title to the land in dispute was the deed by
It will be noted from the foregoing that neither the plaintiff nor the defendant deraigned title to the property in controversy from the paramount source of title. They did not connect their respective grantors with any prior title whatsoever. The court, if required to pass upon the question of title in this case, could not determine in whom the title to the 110 acres claimed by Pavliger or, for that matter, title to any other part of Mildred Island is vested.
As to the possession of Mildred Island by the plaintiff, the evidence was to the effect that the plaintiff’s agent, said Barker, entered into possession of the island in the year 1920. The island at that time was entirely covered Avith water and Barker, so he testified, proceeded Avith necessary steps for the reclamation of the island so as to put it in a condition for farming purposes. He stated that his operations extended over the entire island, including the six acres in dispute. He said: “We protected the banks with piling, built levees with dredgers, dug ditches and cleaned out and ran canals. We worked on the entire island. During the year 1920 we were the only people on the island.” Referring to the fact that the defendant was in the occupation of a portion of the lands claimed by the plaintiff he testified: “Around the 8th of March, 1921, I heard that the Chinamen, these people we have the suit with, were on the island. I immediately hired a speed boat and in company with Kelly, the operator of the boat, went to the place
As to the exact location of the six acres of land in dispute, the evidence appears to be rather vague and uncertain. There were two witnesses, civil engineers by profession, who testified that the deeds and contract whereby Louis Sanders became the owner of the four parcels of land above referred to, and which are relied upon by the defendants as constituting color of title in him, described the lands sufficiently to enable them to be identified as the lands constituting the 110 acres within the exterior boundaries of which it is claimed the six acres in question are embraced. There was some other testimony regarding the location of said six acres and which tended to locate them within the boundaries of the 110 acres. The trial court, while declaring in a written opinion, filed in the case and which is incorporated in the brief of counsel for the defendant, that the six acres were not located with absolute clearness, nevertheless, held that there was sufficient testimony to warrant it in concluding that said six acres was a narrow strip overlapping the four parcels described in the instruments purporting to convey the 110 acres to the defendant’s lessor. We are satisfied that the court was justified in reaching this conclusion and making its finding as to that matter accordingly.
We may assume that the plaintiff's testimony, as above related, taken without regard to any adverse showing, is
[1] Plaintiff, however, attempted to support his right to the recovery of the crop of potatoes upon the theory that he is the owner and entitled to the possession of the six acres of land upon which the potatoes were grown and that the defendant was a trespasser and in occupation of said land without any right whatsoever. This cannot be done as against one in possession of the premises under a claim of right; [2] for it is well settled in this state that the question of title caffinot be litigated and adjudicated in a personal action to recover the crops or emblements growing upon land as against the party who is actually seised or in possession of such land in good faith and under claim of right or color of title. (Halleck v. Mixer, 16 Cal. 579 ; Kimball v. Lohmas, 31 Cal. 154 ; Page v. Fowler, 39 Cal. 415 [ 2 Am. Rep. 462 ] ; Pennybecker v. McDougal, 46 Cal. 661 ; Martin v. Thompson, 62 Cal. 618 [ 45 Am. Rep. 663 ] ; Smith v. Cunningham, 67 Cal. 262 [ 7 Pac. 679 ]; Wilson v. Atkinson, 77 Cal. 485 [ 11 Am. St. Rep. 299 , 20 Pac. 66 ] ; Emerson v. Whitaker, 83 Cal. 147 [ 23 Pac. 285 ]; Groome v. Almstead, 101 Cal. 425 [ 35 Pac. 1021 ]; Johnston v. Fish, 105 Cal. 420 [ 45 Am. St. Rep 53 , 38 Pac. 979 ]; Hines v. Good, 128 Cal. 38 [ 79 Am. St. Rep. 22 , 60 Pac. 527 ].) In Halleck v. Mixer, Judge Field states the rule as follows, quoting from the syllabi: “In suits for timber cut and removed, as in this case, the true rule, so far as the title to the land is concerned, is this: The plaintiff out of possession cannot sue for the property severed from the freehold, when the defendant is in possession of the premises from which the property was severed, holding them adversely, in good faith, under claim and color of title. In other words, the personal action cannot be made the means of litigating and determining the title to real property as between conflicting claimants.”
The above rule has been uniformly followed in California and is expounded and applied in the cases above mentioned in connection with the case of Halleck v. Mixer, supra.
Under section 322 of our Code of Civil Procedure land is deemed to be held adversely, except in certain particulars not material here, “when it appears that the occupant, or those under whom he claims, entered into the possession of the property under claim of title, exclusive of other right, founding such claim upon a written instrument, as being a conveyance of the property in question, or upon the decree or judgment of a competent court, and that there has been a continued occupation and possession of the property included in such instrument, decree, or judgment or some part of the property under such claim,” and section 323 of said code provides that “for the purpose of constituting an adverse possession by a person claiming under such deed or judgment, the land is deemed to have been possessed and occupied where it has been usually cultivated or improved or where, although not enclosed, it has been used for the supply of fuel, or of fencing timber for the purpose of husbandry, or for pasturage, or for the ordinary use of the occupant.” (See Owsley v. Matson, 156 Cal. 401 , 403 [ 104 Pac. 983 , wherein is cited the case of Wilson v. Atkinson, 77 Cal. 485 [ 11 Am. St. Rep. 299 , 20 Pac. 66 ].) It has even been held that “a tax deed, though void on its face, if containing a proper description of the land, is sufficient to give color of title under which a claimant of title in good faith may found an adverse possession, so as to set the stat
[5] In this case, as we have seen, the defendant, Seid Pak Yuen, entered into the possession of the premises in dispute under a lease purporting to have been executed by a party who supported his title to the property by certain deeds, etc., or muniments of title. The possession of the defendant was open and notorious and hostile to that of any other claimant of the property. There is nothing in the record indicating that the defendant did not enter into the possession of said premises in good faith, believing that his lease from Pavliger vested in him the legal right to take and hold such possession. In other words, there is absolutely no evidence in the record tending in any degree to show that Seid Pak Yuen, when taking the lease from Pavliger and entering into the possession of the land described in said instrument, had any knowledge of the fact, if it was a fact, that Pavliger’s title to said land was questioned or of doubtful validity.
Conceding, then, that the plaintiff is the true owner of all of Mildred Island,' including the premises in dispute, the defendant, being in possession of said land under a claim of right and color of title, was, under the authorities above cited, the owner of the crop of potatoes involved herein. The situation here, as it is presented by the record, is simply this: That neither the plaintiff nor the defendant succeeded in establishing title to the land in dispute. But the defendant proved actual possession under a claim of right, and as against such possession the plaintiff has no standing in an action to recover any crops produced by the defendant
Rehearing
The judgment is affirmed.
Burnett, J., and Finch, P. J., concurred.
A petition for a rehearing of this cause was denied by the district court of appeal on June 4, 1923, and the following opinion then rendered thereon:
There are two points upon which the application for a rehearing is pressed, to wit: 1. That the evidence fails to show that the defendants entered upon and took possession of the premises in dispute under the written lease from Pavliger to Seid Pak Yuen; 2. That the defendants failed to show, and there is no evidence that does show, that the six acres upon which the potatoes were planted and grown are embraced within the 110 acres of which Pavliger claims the ownership and which is described in the lease from said Pavliger to Seid Pak Yuen.
1. The point first above stated was not made at the trial of the case, but is raised for the first time on this appeal. For that reason we would be justified in refusing to review the point. The case was tried in the court below upon the theory that the defendants went into possession of the premises under the written lease from Pavliger to Seid Pak Yuen. The point should have been raised or made at the trial so that the defendants could have been given an opportunity to show, as in all probability they could have shown, that they took possession under said lease. But we will consider briefly the contention of counsel as to this point. Counsel first call attention to the fact that the lease from Pavliger to Seid Pak Yuen does not indicate the exact date of its execution. The lease bears the following date: “March-, 1921,” the day on which the instrument was executed being pretermitted. There was no showing or any attempt to show by parol or other means extrinsic to the lease itself what day the writing was executed. It was not acknowledged, nor, therefore, was it recorded. Nor is there
[7] 2. Further examination of the evidence since the filing of the petition for rehearing has added strength to the view, expressed in the original opinion, that the finding that the six acres upon which the potatoes were planted and grown were embraced within the exterior boundaries of the 110 acres described in the lease from Pavliger to Seid Pak Yuen cannot justly be disturbed. There was introduced
In conclusion, we may observe that the statement in the petition that Seid Pak Yuen and the other Chinese who were with him upon the premises took possession thereof by means of force and violence is wholly without warrant in the evidence. The only evidence in the record showing the manner in which the defendants had possession of the premises on the eighth- day of March, 1921, consisted of the testimony of Barker, the agent of the plaintiff. The sub
However, for the reasons stated in the original opinion and those superadded herein, the petition for a rehearing is denied.
Burnett, J., and Pinch,- P. J., concurred.
A petition to have t'he cause heard in the supreme court, after judgment in the district court of appeal, was denied by the supreme court on July 3, 1923.
Cases cited
- Kimball v. Lohmas 31 Cal. 154 p. 127
- Pennybecker v. McDougal 46 Cal. 661 p. 127
- Smith v. Cunningham 67 Cal. 262 p. 127
- Wilson v. Atkinson 77 Cal. 485 p. 127, p. 128
- Emerson v. Whitaker 83 Cal. 147 p. 127
- Groome v. Almstead 101 Cal. 425 p. 127
- Johnston v. Fish 105 Cal. 420 p. 127
- Hines v. Good 128 Cal. 38 p. 127
- Owsley v. Matson 156 Cal. 401 at 403 p. 128
- Rector v. Lewis 46 Cal. App. 168 p. 132