Butterfield

Action to quiet title. Judgment for defendant, from which plaintiff appeals.

Plaintiff’s claim of title rests upon a tax deed from the state issued for nonpayment of taxes for the year 1908, and unless it is sufficient to divest title, it is conceded the ownership of the property is, as found by the court, vested in defendant. This deed described the property as follows: “In Los Angeles county, Rancho La Brea, 1.00 acre, Com. 31.980 ehs. E. and 17.57 chs. S. of Sta. 6, Ro. La Brea, described in M-20-38.” Plaintiff called as a witness a surveyor, who undertook to identify and locate the land upon the ground. According to his testimony, he did this by running a line 31.980 chains east and 17.57 chains south from station 6, Rancho La Brea, and then, by reason of “M-20-38” found in the deed, he referred to page 38 of Minute-book 20, kept in the surveyor’s office, where he found a plat of a strip of land the northeast corner of which was reached by the line which he ran from station 6 of Rancho La Brea. This strip of land, as shown by the plat, was some seventy-five feet in width, measured north and south, and of sufficient length, measured east and west, to constitute two acres, and…