ARTICLE 2. Swamp and Overflowed Lands Sold Prior to September 19, 1939 [7521. - 7537.]

Cal. Public Resources Code - PRC 2.

in effect

Cal. Public Resources Code - PRC § 7521. Section 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.

Cal. Public Resources Code - PRC § 7522. Section 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.

Cal. Public Resources Code - PRC § 7523. Section 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.

Cal. Public Resources Code - PRC § 7524. Section 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.

Cal. Public Resources Code - PRC § 7525. Section 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.

Cal. Public Resources Code - PRC § 7526. Section 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.

Cal. Public Resources Code - PRC § 7527. Section 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.

Cal. Public Resources Code - PRC § 7528. Section 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.

Cal. Public Resources Code - PRC § 7529. Section 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.

Cal. Public Resources Code - PRC § 7530. Section 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.

Cal. Public Resources Code - PRC § 7531. Section 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.

Cal. Public Resources Code - PRC § 7532. Section 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.

Cal. Public Resources Code - PRC § 7533. Section 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.

Cal. Public Resources Code - PRC § 7534. Section 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.

Cal. Public Resources Code - PRC § 7535. Section 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.

Cal. Public Resources Code - PRC § 7536. Section 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.

Cal. Public Resources Code - PRC § 7537. Section 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.

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