Jongste

Defendants appeal from a judgment quieting in plaintiff corporation, a mutual water company, title in and to “an easement or right-of-way upon, over, along and across the entire extreme northerly and westerly boundaries” of certain “lands of defendant, Louise T. Jongste . . . for canal and/or ditch purposes,” and enjoining and restraining both of the defendants (Louise T. Jongste and her brother, Bernard Jongste) from “using, interfering or obstructing” such easement or right of way and from “in any wise damming up, holding, obstructing or diverting the water flowing in said canal and/or ditch and from in any wise preventing plaintiff, its agents and employees, from free ingress or egress to said easement or right-of-way for the purposes of maintenance, care and preservation thereof.” Plaintiff bases its claim of title solely on asserted adverse possession and use of the ditch in question under a claim of right (but not color of title; see 1 Cal.Jur. 570, § 51) for a period of more than thirty years last past, while defendants contend that plaintiff’s own evidence establishes that defendant Louise T. Jongste and her predecessors in interest for more than twenty years last past…