City of Los Angeles v. Venice Peninsula Properties

• Citation: 182 Cal.Rptr. 599,644 P.2d 792,31 Cal.3d 288
• Court: United States State Supreme Court (California)
• Decision Date: 10 May 1982
• Parties: , 644 P.2d 792 CITY OF LOS ANGELES, Plaintiff, Cross-defendant and Respondent, v. VENICE PENINSULA PROPERTIES et al., Defendants, Cross-defendants and Appellants, The State of California ex rel. State Lands Commission, Defendant, Cross-complainant and Respondent. L.A. 31422.

Page 599

182 Cal.Rptr. 599

31 Cal.3d 288, 644 P.2d 792

CITY OF LOS ANGELES, Plaintiff, Cross-defendant and Respondent, v. VENICE PENINSULA PROPERTIES et al., Defendants, Cross-defendants and Appellants The State of California ex rel. State Lands Commission, Defendant, Cross-complainant and Respondent.

L.A. 31422.

Supreme Court of California In Bank.

May 10, 1982.

Hearing Denied June 16, 1982.

Paul Hamilton, Pacht, Ross, Warne, Bernhard & Sears, Inc., Los Angeles, for defendants, cross-defendants and appellants.

Nancy A. Saggese, Deputy Atty. Gen., Los Angeles, for defendant, cross-complainant and respondent.

Norman L. Roberts, Asst. City Atty., Los Angeles, for plaintiff, cross-defendant and respondent.

William A. Dorland, Los Angeles, for defendant, cross-defendant and appellant Southern California Gas Co.

Steven W. Bacon, Hill, Farrer & Burrill, Los Angeles, for defendant, cross-defendant and appellant Summa Corp.

MOSK, Justice.

In a series of recent cases, this court has considered the scope and effect of the public trust doctrine. Under that doctrine, the state holds a trust interest on behalf of the public in tidelands (City of Berkeley v. Superior Court (1980) 26 Cal.3d 515, 162 Cal.Rptr. 327, 606 P.2d 362) and in lands between high and low water in nontidal navigable lakes (State of California v. Superior Court (Lyon ) (1981) 29 Cal.3d 210, 172 Cal.Rptr. 696, 625 P.2d 239; State of California v. Superior Court (Fogerty ) (1981) 29 Cal.3d 240, 172 Cal.Rptr. 713, 625 P.2d 256). The public may use such properties for purposes such as commerce, navigation, and fishing, as well as for environmental and recreational purposes. These lands may be conveyed to private persons only to promote trust uses, and grants not made for that purpose remain subject to the rights of the public. (For a scholarly analysis of the development of the public trust in the United States and in California, see Stevens, The Public Trust (1980) 14 U.C. Davis L.Rev. 195, 199 et seq.)

The foregoing cases involved property which was originally owned in fee by the state or federal government and granted by them to private persons. In the present case, the issue is whether the public trust doctrine applies to tidelands in which the state and federal government never had fee title. The tidelands involved here were originally acquired by private persons from the Mexican government prior to the time California was ceded to the United States under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and later patented to the owners by the federal government in accordance with the requirements of the treaty.

Ballona Lagoon, the subject of this proceeding, is an arm of the Pacific Ocean in the Marina del Rey area of Los Angeles. It is subject to the tides, and inundated with seawater at mean low tide and mean high tide. At mean high tide, the depth of the water is sufficient to be navigable by shallow draft vehicles. At its northern end, the lagoon is connected to the Venice Canals, and provides the sole source of water for them.

In 1905, the shore surrounding the lagoon was subdivided into three large abutting tracts, and some of the tidelands were filled and improved. The present case involves two of those tracts, lot R of the Silver Strand subdivision and a portion of lot C of the Del Rey subdivision, both of which consist entirely of waterways. Access to the lagoon is now provided by walkways surrounding the shore, public streets to the shoreline, and bridges across the lagoon. In recent years, motor-controlled tide gates were installed between the Pacific Ocean and the entrance to the lagoon to control the ebb and flow of the tide within the lagoon; they are used to prevent flooding of the adjacent land.

The City of Los Angeles desired to dredge the lagoon, construct sea walls, and make other improvements therein without exercising its power of eminent domain. It filed an action for declaratory relief and to quiet title in the lagoon against the owners of lots C and R, and the holder of an easement in these lots (hereinafter called defendants). ¹ The complaint alleged that the public owns an easement in the lagoon for commerce, navigation and fishing, for the passage of fresh water to the Venice Canals, and for water recreation. It alleged also that the lots had been dedicated by their owners for public use. The city joined the State of California as a defendant in the action, as contemplated by section 6308 of the Public Resources Code. ² The state thereafter filed a cross-complaint, alleging that it had acquired an interest in the tidelands of the lagoon for commerce, navigation and fishing upon admission to the Union, that it held this interest in trust on behalf of the public, and had granted its interest to the city. (For literary convenience, the city and the state will be referred to collectively as plaintiffs.)

After a trial at which both documentary and testimonial evidence was received, the trial court determined that the state holds in trust for the people the easements claimed in the city's complaint, and that the state or its successors have the right to construct the improvements in the lagoon without exercising the power of eminent domain. ³ The court found also that defendants had dedicated the property as public streets or waterways.

Before discussing the primary issue of whether the tidelands trust applies to lands granted by Mexico and later patented to the owners by the federal government, we must consider defendants' claim that the trust doctrine does not apply to their property. They assert that the United States government determined as a fact in the course of the proceedings which culminated in the issuance of a patent to their predecessors in interest that the property in question was not tidelands, and this determination, right or wrong, cannot now be challenged by plaintiffs.

In order to decide this issue, we must examine the circumstances of the original grant and the subsequent patenting process.

In 1839, while California was a part of Mexico, the Constitutional Governor of California granted to Augustin and Ignacio Machado and Felipe and Tomas Talamantes a property known as Rancho Ballona. The rancho's western border was the Pacific Ocean, and it included lots C and R. After the war with Mexico was concluded by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, California was ceded to the United States. Under the terms of the treaty, the rights of Mexican citizens to their property were to be "inviolably respected." (Art. VIII, Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Feb. 2, 1838, 3 West's Cal.Const. (1954) 727, 732.)

In keeping with this obligation, in 1851 the federal government passed "An Act to ascertain and settle the private Land Claims in the State of California" (hereinafter referred to as the Act of 1851), the purpose being to establish a method by which the claims to land granted by Mexico could be confirmed and settled in the grantees by the federal government. (9 U.S.Stat. 631.)

The Machados and Talamantes, following the procedure set forth in the act, petitioned the Board of Land Commissioners in 1852 for a decree confirming their title to the rancho. After a hearing, the board confirmed the title, describing the boundaries of the rancho in the same terms as the original Mexican grant. That decision was affirmed by the United States District Court in 1855.

However, before a patent could issue, a survey of the property was required, approved by the Surveyor General of California. (9 U.S.Stat. 633, § 13.) In 1858, Henry Hancock conducted a survey and prepared a plat which showed a large body of water labelled "inner bay" extending from the southwest corner of the property parallel to the Pacific Ocean in a northwesterly direction. Hancock's field notes set forth his measurements as he walked along the shores of the bay, crossed an inlet, and came to the Pacific Ocean.

For reasons which are not entirely clear from the record, the correctness of the survey was not determined until 17 years later. In 1869, objections to the survey were filed by owners of the ranch which bordered Rancho Ballona on the north, an area some distance from that marked "inner bay" on the Hancock survey. Under a statute passed in 1864 to expedite the settlement of land titles in California (13 U.S.Stat. 332), the Hancock survey was forwarded to Washington to the General Land Office Commissioner, who was required to approve it prior to the issuance of the patent, and to settle conflicting claims to the lands surveyed. Commissioner Willis Drummond decided that the survey was accurate with regard to the disputed northern boundary. He determined also that the "inner bay" shown on Hancock's map was not an arm of the sea, basing this determination in part on three affidavits which stated that the area labelled "inner bay" on the plat was dry land used for pasturage, except at times of overflow at high water and during storms, when sand blocked the mouth of a creek which, on Hancock's plat, emptied into the "inner bay." However, Drummond approved the Hancock survey.

Thereafter, a patent was issued. It not only incorporated the plat prepared by Hancock, but his field notes as well. The grant was for "the tract of land embraced and described in the ... Survey...." Defendants base their claim that the patent proceedings determined conclusively that the "inner bay" was not tidelands, upon the finding of Drummond.

The parties are in disagreement as to what was finally decided in the patent proceeding ⁴ and whether the determination as to the character of the "inner bay" was necessary to the approval of the survey. ⁵ For the purpose of analyzing the effect of the patent we assume, without deciding, that defendants prevail on these matters and that Drummond's determination that the "inner bay" was not an arm of the sea was a final decision on that question and a necessary predicate to the issuance of the patent.

But these assumptions do not end...