Home for the Care of the Inebriate v. City of San Francisco

The plaintiff claims to be the owner of a lot of land within the boundaries of the city and county of San Francisco, and brought this action against the defendant to quiet its title thereto. The defendant denied the plaintiff’s right to the land, and alleged itself to be the owner of the land, and asked a judgment quieting its title thereto as against the plaintiff. Judgment was rendered in favor of the defendant, and the plaintiff has appealed.

The land in question is within that portion of the corporate limits of San Francisco which is embraced within the terms of the act of Congress of March 8, 1866. (14 U. S. Stats., p. 4.) By that act Congress granted to the city its interest in the lands ¿herein described, and confirmed the city’s claim thereto, upon *536 the trust that the portion thereof not previously granted to the city, and which includes the land in question, should he conveyed by the city to parties in bona fide, actual possession thereof at the date of the act, as might be prescribed by the legislature of the state of California, “except such parcels thereof as may be reserved and set apart by ordinance of said city for public uses.” After the passage of this act,…