Ball v. Stephens

The judgment in this case declared, "that for more than thirty years immediately preceding the commencement of the above-entitled action there has been and still is a public road and highway situated in the County of San Luis Obispo, State of California, described as follows, to wit: [description] . . . to the Deer Trail Quicksilver Mine, and being the present existing road traversing said sections and being 20 feet in width." Defendant was ordered to remove a fence with a locked gate which he had placed across the road where it enters his land and to pay plaintiff $500 damages as the reasonable rental value of plaintiffs interest in a quicksilver mine owned by plaintiff and defendant during the time he was prevented by defendant from using the road and working the mine. For some 900 feet the described road crosses a corner of a parcel of land which defendant homesteaded and which was patented to him in 1928. Defendant seeks a reversal of the judgment upon the following grounds: (1) the evidence was insufficient to prove the existence of a public road; (2) the issues of the present action were determined adversely to plaintiff and in favor of defendant in a former action tried shortly before the present one was commenced; (3) there was insufficient evidence to sustain the finding of damages.