ARTICLE 3. Provisions Relating to All Swamp and Overflowed Lands [7551. - 7556.]

Cal. Public Resources Code - PRC 3.

in effect

Cal. Public Resources Code - PRC § 7551. Section 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.

Cal. Public Resources Code - PRC § 7552. Section 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.

Cal. Public Resources Code - PRC § 7552.5. Section 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.

Cal. Public Resources Code - PRC § 7553. Section 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.

Cal. Public Resources Code - PRC § 7554. Section 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.

Cal. Public Resources Code - PRC § 7555. Section 7555.

(a) In a case in which 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 of the lands 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 of the land, and may prosecute the suit to final judgment. The complaint in the action shall contain a plat of the property described in the complaint, 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. (b) 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. (c) Costs against the state shall not be allowed in the suit.

Cal. Public Resources Code - PRC § 7556. Section 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.

Source: CA Legislative Counsel Bulk DataURL: https://downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/pubinfo_2025.zipFetched: 6/27/2026