SECTIONS 7521-7537 - California Statutes

PUBLIC RESOURCES CODE

SECTION 7521-7537

7521. The swamp and overflowed lands belonging to the State were
sold prior to September 19, 1939, at the rate of one dollar ($1) an
acre. Twenty per cent of the principal is payable within 50 days from
the date of the approval of the survey by the commission. The
balance, bearing interest at the rate of 7 per cent per annum,
payable annually in advance, is due and payable one year after the
passage of any act of the Legislature requiring such payment, or
before, if desired by the purchasers. Bonds or warrants of
reclamation districts having an outstanding indebtedness are
receivable at par in payment for lands in such districts.

7522. The commission shall not approve any application nor issue
evidence of title for swamp and overflowed land, until six months
after the land has been segregated by authority of the United States.

7523. No claim shall be made by the State to any land as swamp or
overflowed, which has not been returned as such by the United States,
nor to lands for which preemption or homestead patents have been
issued by the United States, or upon which there are settlers,
occupying the land in good faith, who have filed their preemption or
homestead declaratory statements. The commission shall not receive
any application to purchase as swamp or overflowed lands, any land
not returned as such by the United States, unless the application be
accompanied by a certificate from the Register of the United States
Land Office for the district in which the land is situated, or by the
affidavits of two disinterested persons, that there is no preemption
or homestead settler upon the land sought to be purchased, or if
there is such settler, that he has resided on the land more than six
months prior to the time of making such application. The application
shall be invalid in every case where there is a valid preemption
filing or homestead entry on the land sought to be purchased at the
time the application is made.

7524. Any person desiring to purchase swamp and overflowed lands
shall make an affidavit and file it in the office of the commission,
that he is a citizen of the United States, or has filed his intention
to become so; that he is a resident of the State, of lawful age;
that he desires to purchase lands (describing them) under the law
providing for the sale of swamp and overflowed lands; that he does
not know of any valid claim to the lands, other than his own; that he
knows the land applied for and the exterior bounds thereof, and
knows, of his own knowledge, that there are no settlers thereon; or,
if there are, that the land has been segregated more than six months
by authority of the United States; and that the land which he now
owns (swamp and overflowed), together with that sought to be
purchased, does not exceed 640 acres.

7525. Any false statement contained in the affidavit defeats the
right of the applicant to purchase the land, or to receive any
evidence of title thereto, and if wilfully false, subjects him also
to punishment for perjury.

7526. If at any time after such affidavit is filed in the office of
the commission, and prior to the issuance of a patent for the lands
described therein it is made to appear to the commission by the
affidavit of any settler or person occupying such land for farming
purposes, that he, or those under whom he claims, have been in the
possession and occupancy of such lands, or any part thereof, for
farming purposes, for over 10 years next prior to the date of the
filing of the affidavit of the person desiring to purchase, and that
his or their occupancy was open and notorious and was evidenced by
actual enclosure, or by ditches, or monuments, or embankments, or
levees, showing the actual extent thereof, and that he, or they under
whom he claims, had, at the time of the filing of the affidavit by
the person desiring to purchase, actually reclaimed such land and
reduced it to a state of cultivation, and had been farming and
cultivating the land; or if it appears from such affidavit filed by
such person, that the affidavit filed by the person desiring to
purchase the land is false in any of the statements made therein, the
commission shall make an order referring the questions raised by
such affidavits to the superior court of the county in which the
land, or some part thereof, is situated.

7527. Within 30 days from the date of such order of reference, the
party filing the affidavit raising such questions shall commence, in
such court, an action to determine the questions. In his complaint in
the action he shall set forth copies of the affidavit filed by the
person desiring to purchase the land, and of the affidavit filed by
himself with the commission. The production of a certified copy of
the order of reference shall give the court full and complete
jurisdiction to hear and determine the action. Pending the final
judgment in the action, all proceedings in the commission's office
respecting the lands shall be stayed.

7528. If upon the trial of such action it appears that any of the
statements made in the affidavit filed by the person desiring to
purchase the land were false, or if it appears that the statements
made in the affidavit filed by the settler or occupant of such land
are true, the approval of location or certificate of purchase, if any
has been made or issued, shall be canceled by judgment of the court.
But if it appears that the statements contained within the affidavit
of the person desiring to purchase the land are true, and that the
statements made in the affidavit of the settler or occupant are
untrue, the court shall enter its judgment accordingly.

7529. Upon the filing with the commission of a copy of the final
judgment of the court, the commission shall, if the judgment of the
court cancels the location or certificate of purchase, enter an order
of cancellation accordingly. But if by the judgment it is decreed
that the person desiring to purchase the land is entitled to purchase
it, the commission shall approve the location, or issue the
certificate of purchase or other evidence of title, in accordance
with the judgment.

7530. Any person desiring to purchase lands, as provided in this
article, which have been segregated by authority of the United
States, but which have not been sectionized by the same authority,
shall apply to the surveyor of the county in which the land is
situated, to have the land which he desires to purchase surveyed. A
certificate of such survey shall be attached to the affidavit
required for the purchase of the lands. All surveys required of
county surveyors by this section shall conform, as nearly as
practicable, to the system adopted by the United States for the
survey of the public lands.

7531. All payments shall be made by the purchaser to the county
treasurer of the county in which the land is situated. The treasurer
shall receive the amounts to be paid including the fee for the
certificate of purchase, if any. The treasurer shall endorse upon the
certificate of purchase the amount of all payments and shall direct
the purchaser to take the certificate of purchase, so endorsed, to
the county auditor who shall charge the treasurer with the amount
received and make his check upon the endorsed receipt.

7532. Upon the first day of July of each year the county treasurer
shall prepare a report showing all moneys received for swamp and
overflowed and tide lands during the preceding year, the number of
the location or survey, the name of the purchaser, and the amount
paid since the date of his last report, whether as principal or
interest. The payment of the fee for the certificate of purchase
shall also be entered in the proper column. The treasurer shall then
send the report to the auditor who shall compare the items with the
account of the treasurer and if it agrees with his entries
countersign it and return it to the county treasurer.

7533. These reports shall be forwarded to the commission, and upon
receipt thereof the commission shall enter the payment so reported to
the credit of the purchaser, and shall notify the county treasurer
of the receipt of his report, or if it is not correct return it for
correction.

7534. The county treasurer shall retain all money arising from the
sale of swamp and overflowed lands and place it to the credit of a
separate trust fund or trust account. He shall compute interest on
all sales of such lands from the date of the approval of the survey
or the date of the certificate of location to the first day of
January following such date, or, if for lands already purchased, up
to the first of January following the day upon which the interest
falls due, after which time all payments of principal and interest
fall due on the first day of January.

7535. If a reclamation district is organized in any county, the
board of supervisors of each county in which any portion of the lands
of the district are located, upon the application of any interested
party, shall direct the auditor and treasurer to set apart from the
county swamp-land fund all money received in payment of principal and
interest on the lands within the district, as a fund to the credit
of the district, after deducting any money previously expended from
the swamp-land fund for the benefit of land within the district. The
money in the district fund shall be paid out only for the purpose of
reclaiming land within the district, or to the owners of such land
after reclamation, as provided by law. All money paid in upon these
lands and diverted to the use and benefit of other lands shall be
replaced out of the first receipts from the land so benefited.

7536. If any expenses pertaining to land in a reclamation district
have been paid from the county swamp-land fund including expenses for
attorney's fees in the examination of the character of the land, the
county treasurer shall deduct this amount from the amount otherwise
found due to the land for which the expenses were paid, and only
return to the owner of the land that portion of the money paid on the
land which remains after deducting the amount paid for expenses
pertaining to the land.

7537. Sections 7535 and 7536 do not apply to districts upon which
controller's warrants are outstanding, until after all of the
warrants are paid.