Mendenhall

This is an appeal from a judgment of nonsuit in an action to quiet title to 51.20 acres of land in Alameda County. The land in controversy is described as a strip three and one half miles long, 4.62 chains wide at one end, and running to a point at the other end.

The plaintiff alleged in his complaint that the strip was a part of a Mexican grant called the rancho El Valle de San José, which was patented by the United States to Antonio Sunol and others on the 15th of March, 1865. The defendants denied that the strip constituted any part of the rancho named, or that plaintiff had any title thereto.

It is admitted that plaintiff proved at the trial, by mesne conveyances from the patentees, that he had sufficient interest in the strip to entitle him to have judgment entered in his favor, provided it was shown to be included within the patented lines of the grant. And whether it was so shown or not, that is to say, sufficiently to make a prima facie case, is the only question discussed by counsel and presented for decision.

The strip lies along the southwesterly side of a Mexican grant called rancho Las Pocitas, the preliminary survey of which was made in 1854 by one Lewis. The…