Leutholtz

This is an appeal by the defendant from a judgment in favor of plaintiff adjudging plaintiff the owner of the exclusive right to the possession of certain lands in Kern County to prospect for and remove oil and gas therefrom and to the possession of said lands, and decreeing that defendant had not any right, title, or interest in said land and enjoining defendant from asserting any claim of ownership in, or any right, title, or interest in or to, said land adverse to plaintiff.

Defendant answered denying the claim of plaintiff and asked for affirmative and injunctive relief.

The legal title of the land is vested in the United States.

Plaintiff’s claim is predicated upon an oil and gas prospecting permit issued by the Secretary of the Interior on May 23, 1921, under the provisions of an act of Congress, approved February 25, 1920.

Defendant claims an equitable title to the land under a lieu land selection made therefor by the state of California on February 17, 1908; a purchase thereof by one Clarrage on March 12, 1921, and a grant deed from Clarrage on January 9, 1923. This deed was recorded in Kern County on June 11, 1924.

On February 17, 1908, when the land in question was…