Brown

By the Courts

This was an action originally instituted before the court of First Instance of San Fran *420 cisco for the recovery of possession of a 50 vara lot at the Mission Dolores. It appears from the evidence that on the 12th day of October, 1842, Francisco Sanchez, then Alcalde of the district of San Francisco, on the petition of plaintiff, granted the premises in controversy ; that, plaintiff enclosed the same by a fence and erected a house thereon; that afterwards, the fence having decayed, the premises were more permanently enclosed by one Leidesdorff, deceased, by and with the consent of Brown. That the premises have generally been denominated “ Brown’s Lot,” The defendant claims under a lease executed in the year 1849 by José Prudencia Santillan,the then Padre of the Mission Dolores, and also by virtue of his settlement and occupancy, setting up that the premises were the property of the government of the United States, and that he cannot be legally ousted but by authority and action of the general government, claiming that. Brown never complied with the conditions imposed inhis grant, and that the premises were vacant and unoccupied at the time he took possession. It…