Montgomery v. Bevans
U.S. Circuit Court for the District of California
This was an action for the possession of a fifty-vara lot situated within the limits of the city of San Francisco, as defined by its charter of 1851; and was tried by the court without the intervention of a jury, by stipulation of the parties. The plaintiff [John B. Montgomery] asserted title to the demanded premises, under an alleged grant to his son.
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This was an action for the possession of a fifty-vara lot situated within the limits of the city of San Francisco, as defined by its charter of 1851; and was tried by the court without the intervention of a jury, by stipulation of the parties. The plaintiff [John B. Montgomery] asserted title to the demanded premises, under an alleged grant to his son. John E. Montgomery, issued by Alcalde Washington A. Bartlett, bearing date on the first day of December, 1846. The defendants [Thomas P. Bevans and others] claimed under a grant issued to Andrew J. Grayson by Alcalde Edwin Bryant on the…
1Opinion of the Court
FIELD, Circuit Justice.
There was no authority in the alcalde to revoke a grant once made and delivered, or to mutilate its record. Neither an attempted revocation nor a mutilation of a record could operate to divest a title already passed to the grantee. If the grantee were living at the date of the grant, and thus capable of taking the title, a question which I shall hereafter consider at length, the power of the alcalde over the property was exhausted when the grant was delivered; and the record of the fact was not subject to subsequent alteration by him.
It may be proper to observe here…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Mayor and Common Council of San Jose v. TrimbleCalifornia Supreme Court · 1871
- Cornwall v. CulverCalifornia Supreme Court · 1860
3Cited by10 opinions
- Northwestern Mut. Life Ins. v. StevensCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit · 1895
- Folk v. United StatesCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit · 1916
- Eversdon v. MayhewCalifornia Supreme Court · 1890
- Ohm v. City & County of San FranciscoCalifornia Supreme Court · 1891
- Phillips v. J. B. Watkins Land Mortgage Co.Texas Supreme Court · 1896
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