Rancho

[Gromatici]

Hobby time. I've got a case No. out of "Land Grants in Alta California" that says for the Refugio Rancho: "019 CAL. 0294" but I can't look it up at FindLaw.com. How can I find this without a district number? I just found out that there were some Spanish grants originally (Later the Mexican Government issued Expendentes- but I'm trying to confirm that). I'm curious to hunt those Spanish Grants down too, but I'm sure I can do that in-house if I needed to.

I found a site to view the Desenos. Amazing!

http://imgzoom.cdlib.org/Fullscreen.ics ... &brand=oac

This is a local Rancho. It's amazing to me that they could retrace these. It must have taken a lot of testimony and interviews of the locals. I'd say the quality was very poor, almost a cartoon of what the deed was to be.

[Paul Goebel]

What an incredible image that is! I can see the texture of the fabric plat. Thanks for the link.

[E_Page]

Findlaw only goes back to Cal 3d, I think. Anything prior to that (CAL = Cal 1st), and you need to hit the law library.

[Propst]

78 U.S. (11 Wall.) 442
link to Justia case file:

http://supreme.justia.com/us/78/442/case.html

This is a fascinating story about the three orphaned sisters who originally obtained the Refugio Rancho being defrauded by the husband and sons of the eldest sister, and the Highest Federal court coming to the rescue to the other sisters' heirs and assigns.

A rare case of a patentee being ordered to transfer the land to the "True" holders of the title by a court of equity.
"Where one party has acquired the legal right to property to which another has the better right, a court of equity will convert him into a trustee of the true owner, and compel him to convey the legal title." 78 US 458

Also a glimpse into the one of the many schemes and frauds attempted on the Land Commission, and while this one made through to patent, the Supreme Court still reached to equity to ensure the rightful owners justice.

Thanks Crisostomo N. Perez for compiling the Book "Land Grants in Alta California", and Roy Minnick for publishing it.

[Gromatici]

I was interested because I want to see what the Spanish Grants look like vs. the Mexican Grants. We have a "Refugio" here in Santa Barbara too. I found the deseno, (maybe I can find the Expediente next) but want to go back farther.

[mpallamary]

Hi,

You should go to LexisNexis.

http://www.lexisnexis.com/clients/CACourts/

If you cannot get in, hit the site and go to the top left where it says HOME. Hit that and you can get in backwards.

Lexisnexis has the current contract to catalogue CA cases.

BLM has the confirmed land grants. Was it partitioned? If so, your local courts will have the files.

If the patent/land grant issued, the county should have the plat and notes.

The number appears to be a reference to the Land Commission files and not to a filed case. Not all grants will show up as having been litigated (as they were not all litigated).

I grabbed the attached quickly for you to consider.

Good luck.

[Gromatici]

Thank you. I was hoping to look at the cases more of a hobby than anything else since the few Rancho's I've retraced I've used the official plat and notes from the BLM. However, I like history and wanted to dig into some of the local issues they had before they affirmed the Mexican Land Grants.

Thanks, I'll have to use Lexis/Nexis again.

[mpallamary]

Hi,

I spent a bit of time pursuing this investigation. If you have time, check out:

http://www.amazon.com/Lay-Land-History- ... 1410702847

[Gromatici]

Very clever. Maybe I'll have to buy it!