Claudino

This is an appeal in an action to quiet title arising out of a boundary line dispute. Defendant Patricia Ann Pereira, individually and as trustee of the Patricia Pereira Family Trust (hereafter Pereira), is one of the two adjoining landowners. Pereira appeals contending the trial court erred in determining that the disputed boundary follows the line of a gulch rather than a straight line as depicted on the townsite plat prepared pursuant to Statutes 1867-1868, chapter 523, page 692. She argues that the trial court was required to adhere to the plat depiction and erred (1) in using the original surveyor’s field notes pertaining to the parcels as a basis for its finding and (2) in admitting extrinsic evidence to resolve a claim of ambiguity in those field notes. Finding no merit in her contentions, we shall affirm the judgment.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On March 2, 1867, Congress enacted a statute authorizing the judge of the county court to claim, in trust for the benefit of the occupants, federal public lands settled and occupied as an unincorporated townsite. (Act of Mar. 2, 1867, ch. 177, 14 Stat. 541 .) The next year California enacted implementing…