Kellogg

This is an .action to quiet title to 160 acres of land in Kettleman Hills in Fresno County. The land in question was owned in 1914 by the British Californian Oil Company, Ltd., a California corporation. This corporation owned several properties located near Los Angeles, and also this piece of land in Fresno County which was then regarded as of little value. 'This property was rough and arid and was situated in what was, until about 1929, a sparsely settled country used only for grazing purposes.

In April or May, 1914, one of the plaintiffs, J. Foster Kell, a resident of London, representing about 450,000 shares of stock in this corporation, came to California for the purpose of attempting to wind up the affairs of the company and to get what he could for the English stockholders. He was elected to the board of directors and succeeded in selling all of the properties owned by the corporation with the exception of this piece of land. After all the other properties had been sold, and under date of June 3, 1914, the corporation executed and delivered a grant deed conveying this property to him. This deed recites that it was given in pursuance of a resolution passed by the board of…