7551-7556
PUBLIC RESOURCES CODE
SECTION 7551-7556
7551. Settlers upon swamp and overflowed lands belonging to the
State who occupy such lands for farming or grazing purposes, and
whose occupation is evidenced by actual enclosure, or by ditches or
monuments showing the actual extent thereof, are preferred purchasers
of such lands for six months after segregation.
7552. Lands within this State which are returned by the United
States as swamp and overflowed lands, and shown as such on approved
township plats, shall, as soon as patents are issued therefor by this
State, be held to be of the character so returned. Nothing in this
section shall be construed to affect the rights of any homestead or
preemption settler claiming under the laws of the United States, nor
to prejudice the rights of any settler located upon such lands to
perfect title to the lands if permitted under existing laws.
7552.5. Where lands above the ordinary high-water mark, granted to
the state by the Arkansas Swamp Lands Act, Act of September 28, 1850,
have been conveyed into private ownership by the State of California
pursuant to an act authorizing the sale and conveyance of swamp and
overflowed lands, such swamp and overflowed lands, by definition, are
taken free of the common law public trust for commerce, navigation,
and fisheries. Where a private owner, deriving title by virtue of
such a conveyance of swamp and overflowed lands, dredges or has
dredged such lands pursuant to then existing law, and such dredging
results or has resulted in the navigable waters of the state flowing
over such lands, such acts shall not operate to create or impose the
common law public trust for commerce, navigation, and fisheries with
respect to such lands. Such acts shall operate to create a
navigational easement, in favor of the public, upon the waters which
flow over the affected real property. The navigational easement so
created may be extinguished only upon the lawful removal of the
navigable waters from the real property.
7553. When the original patent to swamp and overflowed land of the
State has been lost or destroyed, and is not of record in the county
where the land is situate, and no duplicate or copy thereof is in the
office of the Secretary of State or in the office of the commission,
a patent shall be issued to the original purchaser for the same
land, as other patents are issued, when it is proven to the
satisfaction of the commission from the data in the office of the
Secretary of State, or in the office of the commission, that an
original patent has been lawfully issued to the original purchaser,
and from other satisfactory proof that it has been lost or destroyed,
and is not of record in the recorder's office of the county in which
the land is situate. The patent so reissued shall have the same
force and effect as the original patent, and shall contain the clause
"This patent is issued to take the place of the original patent
issued for the same land, on the (give date of original patent, and
by whom issued), and is not intended to change the title of the
persons in whom the land is now vested and only to complete the
record title from the State of California." The commission shall
collect the same fee therefor as in issuing original patents.
7554. Any person having a vested interest in any swamp and
overflowed land, covered by a patent lost or destroyed, and not of
record in the county where the land is situate, in order to obtain
the reissuing of the patent as provided in Section 7553, shall make
an affidavit and file it in the office of the commission, setting
forth that he has a vested interest in the land, or a part thereof,
to which he makes application for a patent to be reissued from the
State of Califoria. He shall also state in the affidavit the chain of
title from the original patentee to and including the present owners
of the land described in the original patent.
7555. In a case where the state has sold lands acquired by it as
swamp and overflowed lands, the person claiming or deraigning title
to any lands through or under a purchase thereof from the state may
bring suit against the state in a court of competent jurisdiction of
the state to establish the boundaries of, and to quiet title to, the
land or a portion thereof, and may prosecute the suit to final
judgment. The complaint in the action shall contain a plat of the
property described therein, which plat shall show the location of the
property in respect to a section corner, the location of which is
shown on an approved United States government township plat, or in
respect to a monument that has been established by reference to a
section corner.
Service of summons in the suits shall be made upon the chair of
the State Lands Commission and upon the Attorney General, and the
Attorney General shall represent the state in the suits.
Costs against the state shall not be allowed in the suit.
7556. All swamp and overflowed lands within one mile of the State
Prison at San Quentin, within the City and County of San Francisco,
City of Oakland, or within five miles of the corporate limits of
either, are excluded from the operation of this chapter.