Sweet

The plaintiff brought this action in ejectment to recover from the defendants possession of a tract of land situate in the county of Contra Costa, alleging that on January 1, 1914, it was the owner thereof and entitled to its possession, but that the defendants Albert H. Sweet and his wife Leona J. Sweet, believing said land to be part of the public domain of the United States, had theretofore entered thereon, and at said date were in possession thereof. Said defendants answered, setting up various facts, among others, that the land in controversy had originally been part of a Mexican land grant; that at a certain date stated in the complaint one Joseph Naphtaly was entitled to purchase it from the United States but had failed to do so, and that it had thereupon become unoccupied public land of the United States, and as such open to homestead entry; that said defendants had lawfully and regularly entered thereon.

A trial of the cause being had, the court found that the land was a part of a United States grant to the Western Pacific Railroad Company; that by the consolidation and amalgamation of said railroad company with the Central Pacific Railroad Company the latter succeeded…