Joseph P. Bradley

“ The patent is to be given to them, and the legal title cannot be separated from the patent.
It is true that the fifteenth section of the act declares that the decree of confirmation shall be conclusive between the United States and the claimants only, and shall not affect the interests of third persons. But this was intended to save the rights of third persons not parties to the proceeding, who might have Spanish or Mexican claims independent of or superior to that presented by the claimant; or the equitable rights of other parties having rightful claims under the title confirmed. ”

“ The governor ordered a grant to issue, as requested, extending to the top of the hill range, but not to prohibit the inahbitants of the Contra Costa from cutting wood for their own use. This order was not signed by the governor, and seems never to have been carried into execution. And this is the last of the documents on which the plaintiff, the now appellant, relied for a perfect title. Leaving out the proceedings of 1844, which are admitted to be imperfect, no human being can tell, from the language of the various documents, what was the eastern boundary of the rancho. ”

“ The legal title is vested in the confirmees, or will be when the requisite conditions are performed. It is not in these equitable claimants. They cannot maintain an action of ejectment against the confirmees, or those claiming under them; but must go into equity, where their rights can be properly investigated with a due regard to the rights of others. Had the daughters as well as the sons of Luis Peralta gone before the commissioners, it is possible that they would have participated in the legal advantages of the confirmation. ”

“ It certainly would seem not to embrace the eastern slope of the hills, as is now claimed; but what it did embrace, or where it did run, is not ascertainable from any of the documents which have been adduced; and no parol testimony can aid this defect as regards the question now under consideration. Parol testimony was very properly adduced before the commissioners for the purpose of showing where equity required that the line should be run, in order to separate the rancho from the public domain. But it cannot make that title perfect which was not perfect before. ”

“ The deep creek called San Leandro, and at a distance from this (say about five leagues) , there are two small mountains (cerritos) . The first is close to the beach; next to it follows that of San Antonio, serving as boundaries, the rivulet which issues from the mountain ranges, and runs along the foot of said small mountain of San Antonio, dividing or separating the land; and at the entrance of the little gulch there is a rock elevating itself in the form of a monument, and looking towards the north. ”

“ Murphy, [6] the court says: 'A court of equity will control the legal title in his [the confirmee's] hands, so as to protect the just rights of others. But in ejectment the legal title must prevail;' and it decided the case accordingly against the plaintiff in ejectment. In Banks v. Moreno, [7] the same conclusion was reached. In that case, as in this, the plaintiff claimed under the daughters of Luis Peralta ”