Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 10.djvu/648

This page needs to be proofread.

636 FEDERAL REPORTER. �The foregoing are the facts upon which the title nnder the execntion Baie rests. The title under the patent rests upon the following taets : �Joseph Sadoc Alemany, Catholic bishop of the diocese of Monterey, on Feb- ruary 19, 1853, filed his petition with the commission ers to asceitain and settle land titles in California under the act of congress of 1J^51, in which he elaimed the confirmation to him and his successors of certain cliurch property de- scribed "to be held by him in trust for the religions purposes and uses to which the same have been respectively approprinted," said property consisting of " church edifices, houses for the use of the clergy and those employed in the services of the cimreh, church-yards, burial grounds, gardena, orehards, and vineyards, vfith the neceasary buildings thereon and appurtenances ;" alleging tliat the same had been recognized as the property of said churclr by the laws of Mexico in force at the time of the cession of California to the United States. ihe occupation by the church is elaimed in the petition to have commenced some time in the last century. On December 18, 1855, the board of land coin- missioners confirmed the claim to lands "at the mission of San Fernando." described in the decree as follows : " ihe church and the buildings adjoining thereto in a quadrangular form, and the house connected with the same by a yard at the south-west corner of said quadrangle, which are known as the church and mission buildings of the mission of San Fernando, situated in the county of Los Angeles, together with the land on which the same are erected, and the curtilages and appurtenances thereto belonging, and the cemetery enclosed with an adobe walI adjoining said church." ihis decree became final, by dismissal of the appeal, March 15, 1858. �A survey and plat were made, filed, and certifled August 6, 1861, in pursu- ance of the act of 1860; and a patent issued to said Bisliop Alemany, JM:ay 13, 1862, embracing eight parcels o£ land described in the plat and survey, and being the same several parcels particularly described in the third supplemental answer filed In this case. They embraced the orehards and vineyards used by the mission at a little distance from the church building. The plaintifi has such right of possession as is conferred by said patent. �On October 7, 1852, Eulogio de Celis filed his petition with the said board of land commission praying a confirmation to him of the mission of San Fer- nando rancho, his title being a "deed of grant" made to him on Jjine 17, 1846, by Pio Pieo, governor of California. ihis petition included the lands liereinbefore mentioued patented to Bishop Alemany. The claim was con- firmed July 3, 1855, and the decree became final, by dismissal of the appeal. March 16, 1858. ihe description in the decree of confirmation is as follows : "ihe land of which confirmation is hereby given is called the ex-mission of San Fernando, situate in the county of Los Angeles, and to be located as the boundaries are known and recognized on the seventeenth day of June, 1846. Bounded on the north by the rancho called San Francisco, on the west by the mountains Santa Susanna, on the east by the rancho Miguel, and on the south by the Portosuelo." A survey and plat having been made and filed in 1861, and notice given and the survey returned into court under the act of 1860, afterwards, August 14, 1865, proceedings were had in the district court by wUich the eastern boundary line of the rancho was modifled, and subsequently. ��� �