Smith v. Southern Pacific Railroad

The plaintiffs have appealed from a judgment quieting the title of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company to a strip of land less than an acre in area along its right of way in Santa Clara County.

The plaintiffs claim as joint tenants through a deed from one C. N. Anderson executed in 1923, and show a paper title by mesne conveyance from one C. H. Phillips, who was stipulated to be the record owner of the San Martin rancho, of which the strip of land was a part, at the time of its first conveyance as a separate parcel.

The respondent railroad company set up as a defense that the action was barred by sections 318 and 319 of the Code of Civil Procedure, and, by way of cross-complaint, asserted ownership and asked to have its title quieted. The ease was tried without a jury and the court found that “the defendant and cross-complainant Southern Pacific Railroad Company is and for many years has been the owner, in possession and entitled to the exclusive possession by itself, and its lessees, of that certain standard gauge steam railroad and the right of way therefor referred to in the complaint and being commonly known as the Coast Line Railroad of Southern Pacific Railroad Company;…