Thompson

This action was brought against a large number of defendants to recover possession of certain land in the county of Los Angeles, and to restrain the defendants from injury thereto. The land described in the complaint is the south half of the Rancho ex-Mission de San Fernando, with certain exceptions, and the complaint alleges its ownership by the plaintiff, and the unlawful entry thereon and withholding of the possession by the defendants, and that they are committing injury, both temporary and permanent, to the said land. Most of the defendants suffered default, but eight of them filed answers to the complaint, upon which the cause was tried before a jury. At the close of the trial, upon the motion of the plaintiff, the court directed the jury to find a verdict in its favor against these defendants. From the judgment entered thereon and from an order denying a new trial they have appealed.

At the trial the plaintiff introduced in evidence a patent from the United States to Eulogio de Celis for the Rancho ex-Mission de San Fernando, dated January 8, 1873, and showed that the grantor of the plaintiff, who had purchased an undivided half of the rancho in 1869, had, after the…