Sherman

The controversy herein arises from conflicting applications made to the surveyor general of the state to purchase certain unsurveyed lands situated on the margin of Owen’s Lake, in Inyo county, and uncovered by the receding waters of the lake, lying between the present shore or water line and the original meander line previously established by the United States government survey—the applications being made under and in pursuance of “An act regulating the sale of lands uncovered by the recession or drainage of inland lakes,” etc. (Stats. 1893, 341). The features of that act material to our present consideration are:

The defendant’s application and the survey in pursuance thereof were made prior to the filing of plaintiff’s application, and the validity of defendant’s application is the only question which demands consideration, since in the view we take, it determines the rights of the parties. That application, as found by the court and as conceded by respondent, conformed in its statements to all the requirements of the statute, both in form and substance, and, if the material statements therein were true, established defendant’s prior right to purchase the land in dispute.

The…