STATE OF CAL., ETC. v. United States

AGUILAR, District Judge.

This action is before the Court on plaintiff State of California's motion to strike the affirmative defenses of the statute of limitations, laches and estoppel asserted by the defendant United States of America in its answer to the State's complaint to quiet title to the land comprising Hamilton Air Force Base. The Court also has before it the State's motion for reconsideration of the Magistrate's ruling compelling production of certain documents.

This lawsuit is one of a number of lawsuits seeking a judicial determination of the proper disposition of a choice parcel of land bordering the San Francisco Bay in Marin County, California. Beginning in 1931 the United States acquired, through various condemnation actions and by purchase and donation deed, portions of land which collectively make up the land on which the United States built a military airbase known as Hamilton Air Force Base (hereinafter referred to as the "Base"). The Base was used as an airbase until it was decommissioned in 1974. In 1976, portions of the Base were declared by Congress to be surplus property. Pursuant to its statutory authority to dispose of surplus property ( see 40 U.S.C.…