CHAPTER 3.6. Cullen Earthquake Act [751.50. - 751.65.]

Cal. Code of Civil Procedure - CCP 3.6.
in effect

Cal. Code of Civil Procedure - CCP § 751.50. Section 751.50.

If the boundaries of land owned either by public or by private entities have been disturbed by earth movements such as, but not limited to, slides, subsidence, lateral or vertical displacements or similar disasters caused by man, or by earthquake or other acts of God, so that such lands are in a location different from that at which they were located prior to the disaster, an action in rem may be brought to equitably reestablish boundaries and to quiet title to land within the boundaries so reestablished.

Cal. Code of Civil Procedure - CCP § 751.51. Section 751.51.

(a) An action authorized by this chapter may be commenced by: (1) A county in which lands were affected by a disaster described in Section 751.50 with or without the joinder of a city or cities included in the county and within the area so affected. (2) A city, if the disaster has affected land in the city. (3) Any other entity or person owning or having an interest in or lien upon land affected by the disaster if granted permission by the court to bring the action, and if the county in which the land is located is made a party to the action. (b) In an action authorized by this chapter every entity in actual and peaceable possession of, or having an estate or interest in or lien upon any of the land affected by the action, whose possession or evidence of estate or interest is either recorded or known to the plaintiffs, the city, if the land is within a city, the county in which the land is located, and the State of California must be designated in the complaint of the action, and given notice in the manner required by this chapter. (c) All unknown entities, including owners, lien or interest claimants, heirs, devisees, legatees or assigns, may be described in the caption and complaint as “all entities claiming any interest in or lien upon, the real property herein described or any part of it.”

Cal. Code of Civil Procedure - CCP § 751.52. Section 751.52.

An entity which is a permissive plaintiff under this chapter, may bring a separate action with respect to separate portions of the disaster area of sufficient size to equitably reestablish boundaries without harm to other areas of the common disaster, its decision regarding the desirability of the separate action, and regarding the area to be dealt with in each action to be approved by the court.

Cal. Code of Civil Procedure - CCP § 751.53. Section 751.53.

The complaint shall substantially include: (a) A statement of the facts which make the provisions of this chapter applicable. (b) A description of the exterior boundaries of the real property area sought to be affected by the action. (c) A specification of the estate, title, interest or claim owned, and in the actual possession of the plaintiff or plaintiffs in described parts of the entire real property sought to be affected by the action. (d) A specification of the estate, title, interest, or claim, so far as they are known to the plaintiffs or either of them, and so far as they are capable of being discovered by reasonably diligent search by the plaintiff or plaintiffs, in each separate part of the entire real property sought to be affected by the action. (e) A specification of the street areas sought to be vacated or offered by the plaintiff, or plaintiffs, to be vacated in whole or in part for judicial equitable allocation to landowners for the mitigation of the losses inflicted upon the landowners by the particular disaster or disasters to which this chapter is applicable. (f) A proposed replatting of the entire real property sought to be affected by the action, embodying the land boundaries as fixed by the disaster, except as these boundaries have been equitably and judicially readjusted, or as liberalized by judicially directed use of the vacated lands.

Cal. Code of Civil Procedure - CCP § 751.54. Section 751.54.

Summons, publication of notice, posting and related matters and procedures shall be governed by the provisions of Sections 751.05 through 751.10, inclusive, of the Code of Civil Procedure.

Cal. Code of Civil Procedure - CCP § 751.55. Section 751.55.

Upon the completion of the service, publication and posting of the summons, as may be required by this chapter, the court has complete jurisdiction over the parties plaintiff or plaintiffs and the entire real property described in the complaint as intended to be affected by the action, and over every entity having or claiming an estate, right, title or interest in or to, or lien upon, all or any part of the property, and shall be considered to have obtained the possession and control of the property for the purposes of the action with complete jurisdiction to render the judgment provided for in this chapter.

Cal. Code of Civil Procedure - CCP § 751.56. Section 751.56.

(a) An answer to the complaint must be served within 90 days after the first publication of the notice, or such further time not exceeding 30 days, as the court for good cause may grant. (b) An answer must: (1) Specifically set out the particulars in which the claimant’s estate, right, title, or interest in or to, or lien upon all or any part of the property is different from, or greater than, the interest of the claimant as it is described in the complaint. (2) Be confined to rights based on events occurring at the time of, or since the time of the disaster. (c) To whatever extent, if at all, the answering party has rights against anyone whatsoever, based upon facts or events which occurred before the disaster, the claims shall remain unaffected by the action brought under this chapter and shall be assertable subsequent to the conclusion of the action at any time and in any manner permitted by law, notwithstanding the judgment granted in this action, recognizing however the finality of this judgment as to the consequences, with respect to land boundaries as applicable to land in the disaster area.

Cal. Code of Civil Procedure - CCP § 751.58. Section 751.58.

The vacating of streets, highways or other public ways within or abutting the area affected by the disaster, in whole or in part, by the voluntary action of the governmental agency under whose jurisdiction the streets, highways, or ways are vested, for the purpose of making it possible for the court to mitigate the hardships suffered by entities because of the change in land boundaries caused by the disaster can be accomplished by the affected governmental agency expressing the offer in the proceedings followed by the court’s acceptance thereof in an action authorized by this chapter, without complying with any other formalities of law.

Cal. Code of Civil Procedure - CCP § 751.59. Section 751.59.

In an action of the type authorized by this chapter, judgment shall not be given by default, but the court must require proof of the facts alleged in the complaint and other pleadings.

Cal. Code of Civil Procedure - CCP § 751.60. Section 751.60.

The judgment shall: (a) Determine the land boundaries of each parcel of land located within the entire area of real property sought to be affected by the action, whether owned publicly or privately, as fixed by the disaster, except as these boundaries have been judicially and equitably readjusted and as liberalized by judicial equitable allocation of lands voluntarily vacated by a city, county or the state under this act. (b) Determine the entity or entities having estates, rights, titles, interests and claims in and to each parcel, whether legal or equitable, present or future, vested or contingent, or whether they consist of mortgages or liens of any description. (c) Approve and direct the proper filing of an official map covering the entire area of real property sought to be affected by the action, as a substitute for the plat maps previously filed, but rendered inaccurate by the disaster.

Cal. Code of Civil Procedure - CCP § 751.61. Section 751.61.

In reaching the conclusions called for by Section 751.60, the court shall give effect to the changes in land boundaries caused by the disaster, mitigated, however, so far as can equitably be done by adjustment of land boundaries and by allocating to contiguous lots parts of the land released by a city, county or the state by its voluntary vacation of areas formerly constituting public ways, which vacatings of streets shall be approved by the judgment.

Cal. Code of Civil Procedure - CCP § 751.62. Section 751.62.

The judgment shall be conclusive with respect to land boundaries upon every entity who at the commencement of the action had or claimed an estate, right, title or interest in or to or lien upon a part of the entire area of real property described in the complaint as intended to be affected by the action, and upon every entity claiming under any such person by title subsequent to the commencement of the action.

Cal. Code of Civil Procedure - CCP § 751.63. Section 751.63.

A certified copy of the judgment shall be recorded, at the expense of the plaintiff or plaintiffs in the action, in the office of the recorder of the county in which the affected land is situated and shall constitute constructive notice of the findings therein and of the official plat or plats referred to therein, which findings and plats shall supersede and control all prior plats, maps and documents to the extent inconsistent therewith.

Cal. Code of Civil Procedure - CCP § 751.64. Section 751.64.

The remedies provided for by this chapter are cumulative and in addition to any other remedy provided by law for quieting or establishing title to real property or the boundaries of it.
Source: CA Legislative Counsel Bulk DataURL: https://downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/pubinfo_2025.zipFetched: 6/27/2026

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