Coburn v. San Mateo County

• Decision Date: 14 July 1896
• Docket Number: 12,030.
• Citation: 75 F. 520
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of California
• Parties: COBURN v. SAN MATEO COUNTY.

75 F. 520

COBURN v. SAN MATEO COUNTY.

No. 12,030.

United States Circuit Court, N.D. California.

July 14, 1896

John L. Boone, for complainant.

Henry W. Walker, Dist. Atty., and Edw. F. Fitzpatrick and Craig &amp Meredith, for respondent.

MORROW District Judge.

This is a suit in equity to have an act of the legislature of the state of California entitled 'An act to declare certain tide lands public grounds, and granting the same to the county of San Mateo in trust for the use of the public,' approved February 27, 1893, and alleged by complainant to cover and include premises of which he is the sole and lawful owner, declared unconstitutional and void; (2) to restrain the respondent, the county of San Mateo, from trespassing upon complainant's premises, situate in the county of San Mateo, state of California, and lying on the shore of the Pacific Ocean; and (3) to recover damages for trespasses alleged to have been committed.

The complainant, Loren Coburn, is the owner of a tract of land originally forming part of a Mexican land grant known as the 'Rancho Punta del Ano Nuevo,' made to one Simeon Castro on May 27, 1842, by Juan B. Alvarado, then governor of California, for four square leagues. This grant was subsequently confirmed by the United States district court for the Northern district of California (Hoff. Land Cas. 172 Fed. Cas. No. 16,046), and thereafter, on the 3d day of December, 1857, a patent was issued by the government of the United States to Maria Antonio Pico, widow of Simeon Castro and to Juan Castro, Manuel Castro I., Manuel Castro II., Jose Antonio, Maria Antonio, Jose Francisco, Jose Leandro, and Juan Bantista, the children and heirs of said Simeon Castro, and to their heirs. The grant was by metes and bounds, and, as surveyed, contained 17,753.15 acres. The complainant acquired his title to all the westerly half of said ranch through certain mesne conveyances. His original deed is dated September 12, 1862. A subsequent deed from one Jeremiah Clark was a division of the rancho between said Clark and complainant, and is dated April 5, 1865. By this last deed complainant became the sole owner of the westerly half of said rancho, since which time he has been the sole owner and in full possession of the same. The tract of land comprised in this portion of said rancho lies, as stated, in San Mateo county, immediately south of the town of Pescadero, and is situated between the county road and the Pacific Ocean. It commences at Butano creek, a short distance south of the town of Pescadero, and extends about four miles in length in a southerly direction along the coast. The westerly boundary lies on the Pacific Ocean. The county road, which leads from Pescadero to the town of Santa Cruz, in Santa Cruz county, runs through this land at a distance of from one-half to three-fourths of a mile from the westerly boundary of the Pacific coast, and approximately parallel therewith. That portion of the tract of land lying between the county road and the Pacific Ocean has been used by complainant as a dairy ranch, with some farming and stock raising, ever since he first acquired possession of the property. Until about 1890, the property was rented to tenants, who conducted the dairy business. From 1890 to the bringing of this suit, in December, 1894, the complainant has had personal possession of the premises, and has been engaged in the dairy business on his own account. The land described was open and uninclosed until about 1874. During the latter year fences were built on each side of the county road, thereby inclosing the land. The dairy house of the ranch is situated about halfway between the ocean and the county road, inside of the fence; and a gate was erected in the line of fencing almost opposite the dairy house, thereby affording egress and ingress to this part of the ranch. Along the ocean side of this tract of land are several small beaches, one of which is known as 'Pebble Beach,' another as 'Agate Beach,' and still another as 'Sapphire Beach.' The first one, Pebble Beach, is the subject of controversy in this case. These beaches are small, sandy, or gravelly places; the largest, Pebble Beach, being about 200 feet in length by 50 feet in width; and they are located at a distance of from one to two miles apart, and are so called because stones or pebbles of the character indicated by the names of the beaches are found thereon. Prof. Henry G. Hanks, the state mineralogist for six years, made an official report upon the character of these beaches in 1884, which is contained in the Fourth Annual Report of the State Mineralogist, for the year ending May 15, 1884, pp. 326, 327. This report was introduced in evidence by the complainant. Prof. Hanks was also called as a witness. He testified to making a second and a later report, after another personal investigation of the beaches at the instance of the complainant. This second report comprises also all that is salient of the first official report, made in 1884, and was introduced in evidence by the complainant. The testimony which the witness gave in this connection amounts simply to a repetition of what is substantially contained in the last report. It is as follows:

'In reply to your request that I express my opinion as to the question, 'Do the pebbles on Pescadero Beach come from the land, or are they cast up by the sea?' I make the following report: I made a thorough examination of Pescadero Beach, and published the results officially in the year 1884 in the Fourth Annual report of the State Mineralogist of California, folio 326, as follows: 'The beach at Pescadero, San Mateo county, has a wide celebrity for the beautiful pebbles found there. These are nearly all quartz, agates, carnelians, jaspers, and chalcedony, of many beautiful varieties. On the shore, under a low bluff nearly at the sea level, a stratified sandstone dips from 65 to 72 degrees from the horizontal to the southwest. The strike is N.W. to S.E. magnetic. Under this, unconformably, lies a sedimentary formation, more recent, in horizontal strata, consisting of sand, water-worn boulders, and pebbles. This formation constitutes the bluff, and the pebbles on the beach result from its disintegration. The upper sedimentary seems to be formed from disintegration of the lower, which extends inland for an unknown distance. In the lower formations the sandstones are of different degrees of fineness, from the finest silt to very coarse conglomerate. In the conglomerate may be seen small boulders of Chalcedony, jasper, agate, and porphyry, which are the same as those found on the beach; but the latter are concentrated by long-continued action of the waves, which have washed away the sand, disintegrated the sandstone boulders, and gathered the harder pebbles together on the beach. Some of the sandstones are cemented by oxide of iron, and all the loose sands are highly ferruginous. On the way from Pescadero to the beach the road is cut through a formation not stratified, but in which the boulders are imbedded. This general formation seems to be the same as is observed in the oil regions of San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Los Angeles counties.' Although at that time I fully made up my mind, I thought best to again visit the locality, which I did on the twenty-second day of March (1895). I examined the beaches for a considerable distance north of Pebble Beach, and the bluff of sand and rocks, as well as the surface of the land for a considerable distance from the sea, and gathered and examined pebbles which had not been on the beaches, but were taken from the banks hundreds of feet inland. Some of these pebbles I present with this report. I find them to be mineralogically identical with those on Pebble Beach. I also obtained specimens of the underlying bedrock, and find it to be the sedimentary variety named 'arkoss,' formed apparently from decomposing granite. I noticed at several places in the bluffs along the beaches I examined outcropping strata of washed pebbles, a portion of which had fallen on the rocks below. These examinations fully confirm the opinion I formed eleven years ago. The sea along the coast of California between San Francisco and Pigeon Point is encroaching upon the land. The effects may be seen along the Pescadero beaches and at the high sedimentary bluffs between Lobetus and Half Moon Bay. The waves, which are resisted by the heard underlying rocks, erode easily the softer superimposed sediments which are continually falling from the banks. The breakers then dashing the detrital matter against the harder rocks wholly disintegrate it, the reflux sweeps away the lighter particles in the condition of sand, spreads them out on the beaches, and finally washes them beyond the surf. The heavier portions, including the pebbles, are able in a measure to resist by their gravity the action of the waves, and remain for time exposed and concentrated; but they in turn are also swept out to sea, and a new crop from the caving bank takes their place. This operation has continued for a long period, and probably will for many centuries to come. The same kind of pebbles exist in the banks above other beaches, but in less quantity; and, owing to the form of the little bays, or other causes, the conditions differ, and the pebbles are sooner carried out to sea, or are at once covered out of sight by the sand. At several other localities on the California coast there are pebble beaches similar to those of Pescadero, the most noted of which are those near Crescent City, in Del Norte county, and at Lake Tahoe.'

Pebble Beach is a small semicircular cove, nearly in line with the dairy house and gate which opens into the county road. The waves beat up this cove, and, reaching the bluff, undermine it, and the...