United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Trenouth v. San Francisco, 100 U.S. 251 (1879)

Trenouth v. San Francisco

100 U.S. 251

Syllabus

1. The history of the title of San Francisco to her municipal lands stated.

2. The act entitled "An Act to quiet the title to certain lands within the corporate limits of the City of San Francisco," approved March 8, 1866, 14 Stat. 4, confirmed her claim, in trust that certain lands should be disposed of and conveyed to parties in the bona fide actual possession thereof, by themselves or tenants, on the passage of the act. Held that trespassers then in possession of the lands, who were afterwards ejected therefrom at the suit of those upon whose prior possession they had intruded, are not beneficiaries under the act, but that the parties who so recovered the possession are entitled to a conveyance from the city.

3. A party cannot initiate a preemption right to public land by intrusion upon the actual possession of another, nor by settling upon land in California, a claim to which, under a foreign title, is at the time pending before the tribunals of the United States for confirmation.

The facts are stated in the opinion of the Court.