Tuffree

This action was brought to quiet title

to a tract of land containing six hundred and forty acres. The complaint is in the usual form, and contains the additional allegation that plaintiff, Mrs. Tuffree, had been in the open, notorious, peaceable, continuous, and adverse possession of the tract for more than fifteen years. The answer denied the allegations of the complaint, and alleged that by a tripartite indenture, executed in 1868, between Abel Stearns and his wife, of the first part, Alfred Robinson, of the second part, and Samuel Brannan, E. F. Eortham, Charles B. Polhemus, Edward Martin, and Abel Stearns, parties of the third part, they, Stearns and wife, conveyed to Robinson certain lands, including the lands here involved. The lands so conveyed were several Mexican grants, containing more than one hundred thousand acres. The deed was made to Robinson, in trust, to hold possession, and sell and convey upon such terms and in such quantities as he might see fit, with the consent of the parties of the third part.

In the findings of fact the trial court declared: “That about the time of the execution of the indenture the beneficiaries (parties of the third part) did enter into…