Bourdieu

On October 24, 1935, appellees filed herein a motion suggesting diminution of the record for the purpose of presenting to this court the motions to dismiss made below by appellees Pacific Western Oil Company, a corporation, Kettieman Oil Company, a corporation, Frank Kennedy, and Kettieman North Dome Association, a corporation, the said motions to dismiss are necessary to a fair consideration of this case, and the motion for diminution of the record is hereby allowed.

Complainant has appealed from an adverse decree in a suit wherein he asked that one of the defendants be adjudged to be holding an oil lease in trust for complainant, and for an accounting of the proceeds derived from the lease, premises covered by the lease, or the permit upon which the lease was based. The lease in controversy covered 322.89 acres of land in Fresno county, Cal.

The evidence shows that a government surveyor’s field notes, prepared August 19, 1882, with respect to certain land, including the land involved herein, recited in part: “Township 21 S. Range 17 E. is very broken and mountainous and is used by the settlers for sheep husbandry and affords ample pasturage for thousands of sheep in the spring…