People v. City & County of San Francisco

This is an action to determine an adverse claim to one hundred and fifty acres of land, more or less, situated at the northern extremity of the peninsula of San Francisco, and the appeal is from a judgment rendered in favor of the defendant on demurrer to the complaint.

It is alleged in the complaint that the premises in dispute were below ordinary high-water mark at the date of the purchase from Mexico, and ever since have been; that on September 28, 1850, the Congress of the United States passed an act granting to the state the swamp lands within her limits; that the lands in dispute were and are swamp lands, and that the title thereto is in the state; that by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the act of March 3, 1851, the United States guaranteed the protection of the property of all Mexican citizens within the state at the date of the conquest; that under said act of March 3, 1851, the city of San Francisco, claiming to be successor in interest of the pueblo of San Francisco, a Mexican citizen, filed a petition before the board of commissioners established by the act for a determination of its claim to four leagues of land on the peninsula of San Francisco; that the board,…