Banning

This is an action to recover possession of a tract of land known as Mormon Island, lying within the exterior boundaries of the inner bay of San Pedro. The plaintiffs claim the land in controversy as a part of the rancho San Pedro, the title to which is a Spanish grant confirmed by the United States district court on appeal thereto from the board of land commissioners appointed under the act of Congress of March 3, 1851, to ascertain and settle private land claims in this state, and a United States patent therefor dated December 18, 1858. This patent conveys the land embraced in the said rancho San Pedro as the same was surveyed by the United States surveyor-general after the confirmation of said grant, the patent referring to the survey and plat thereof for purposes of description. The survey recites that it was made in conformity to the boundaries specified in the decree of confirmation, and after giving certain named exterior boundaries, which it is contended by plaintiffs are the same as those fixed in the decree of confirmation, it proceeds as follows: Excepting, reserving, and excluding from the tract as thus surveyed that portion thereof covered by the navigable waters of…