Pettis

Plaintiff landowner appeals from a summary judgment in favor of defendants General Telephone Company and Southern California Gas Company on his fifth amended complaint to quiet title, for an injunction to compel removal of underground utility lines, and for damages for trespass. As will appear, we have concluded that upon the record presented the summary judgment was erroneously granted and should be reversed.

Plaintiff brought this action against his grantors, called the Bloom group, as well as against the two utility companies. In his complaint he alleges that the Bloom group sold and conveyed the property to him in 1959 for $28,500; that at some previous time the utility companies had constructed underground lines across the property and were now claiming subsurface land rights as well as the right of access from the surface of the property in order to maintain their buried lines; that the public records had not disclosed the claims of the utility companies, and that plaintiff had acquired the property without notice or knowledge of their claims. The utility companies successfully moved for summary judgment under section 437c of the Code of Civil Procedure, on the ground that…