Petersen

The United States brought an eminent domain action to take a certain 51.424 acre tract of land located in the State of California. The United States District Court on February 27, 1956, made an order for the delivery of the possession of the property to the United States. In the instant phase of the eminent domain proceeding, our problem is to determine whether or not the appellants were the owners of the property taken, at the time-of the taking. The State of California, on the one hand, and the appellants, on the other, claim such ownership. The appellants made in the District Court, a motion for judgment in their favor, which judgment would have established their ownership and would have entitled them to the just compensation which the-United States will be obliged to pay to the one who owned at the time of the taking.. The State of California and the United’ States opposed the appellants’ motion. The District Court held the appellants’ claims to the land invalid, denied their motion, and dismissed their claims. The appeal before us is from that judgment.

The land in question, at the time of the taking, was covered by the waters of the San Francisco Bay. It lay between the…