Southern Pacific Co. v. City & County of San Francisco

Defendant City and County of San Francisco appeals from a judgment which quieted title to certain real *52 property on the theory that plaintiff railroad, the Southern Pacific Company, had established superior title by adverse possession. The city’s appeal relates only to that portion of the judgment which quiets title in plaintiff railroad to parcels designated A through W, which shall be referred to below as vacated street areas.

In 1868 the Legislature adopted an act to survey and dispose of certain salt marsh and tidelands belonging to the state, located in the City and County of San Francisco. (Stats. 1867-68, eh. 543, p. 716.) Under the act the Governor was required to appoint three persons, to be known as the Board of Tide Land Commissioners. Upon appointment, and pursuant to the act, the board surveyed the tidelands at Mission Bay, established a waterfront line, and subdivided the area into lots and blocks, reserving .various areas, as directed by the statute, for streets, docks, piers, slips, canals, drains and other uses necessary for public convenience and for purposes of commerce. The commissioners were directed to sell off into private ownership, at public auction,…