In the District Court of the Fifteenth Judicial District. in and for the City and County of San Francisco. Joseph Emeric, Plaintiff; Juan B. Alvarado, et als, Defendants. Brief on Behalf of Plaintiff and the Alvarado Title. John B. Felton and Theodore H.

San Francisco, 1875 Book. Fine. Hardcover. Large octavo. 10 x 7 inches. 98pp. Original dark gray wrappers printed in black. Top of spine with some damage, some widely scattered very light foxing. A fine copy. Rancho San Pablo was a nearly 18,000 acre land grant in present-day Contra Costa County. It was granted in 1823 by Governor Argüello to Francisco Maria Castro. The San Pablo grant covered what is today Richmond, San Pablo and Kensington in CC County. The original grantee, Castro, died in 1831. He left one half of his Rancho to his wife, Maria Gabriela Berreyesa de Castro, and the other half to his eleven children. Unfortunately, the heirs each received undivided shares, which meant that no boundaries were drawn to clearly define what each heir owned. Instead, each heir owned either a 1/22 interest (each child) or 11/22 interest (Castro's wife) in every square inch of the entire Rancho. It became utter confusion. Some sold land, some mortgaged land, and in general no one told anyone else what they were doing. The mom died in 1851 and things still were not resolved. She had left her interest in the Rancho to her daughter Martina, wife of Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado. At one point the other heirs tried to have the will of their mother thrown out. Poorly documented sale and mortgage transactions entered into the almost irresolvable situation. The mess ended up in the courts in what is said to have been one of the most drawn-out land cases in American history. Joseph Emeric (the Plaintiff) came to San Francisco in 1849 with only a dollar in his pocket, after his business failed in Boston. His business ventures on the west coast proved more successful, and he soon was able to purchase large portions of Rancho San Pablo, which entered into the inevitable lawsuits, etc. of this drawn-out California land case. Felton and Hittell provide a superb and quite detailed historical background of Castro's original ownership, his will, and much more in this now scarce legal brief. [thanks in part to the El Cerrito Historical Society]..