Judges Will Lose Title to Property--the Courthouse

A quaint and unique 121-year-old tradition in this Northern California town is coming to an end soon. The Superior Court judges who preside in the local courthouse will no longer own it as well.

Under special legislation introduced by state Sen. James W. Nielsen (R-Rohnert Park), passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor, title to the courthouse will be transferred from the two local Superior Court judges to Tehama County on Jan. 1, 1989.

The changeover is necessary for financial reasons, but it will be regarded as historic in this town of 11,000.

“It’s like a garden club preserving a hanging tree in a public square--a piece of history. It really hasn’t had any serious effect on the operation of county government or the local court system,” noted Tehama County Supervisor Jim Hoffman, 60.

It became necessary to transfer title to the granite and brick courthouse when the county began looking for ways to finance a new $1.1-million courthouse annex completed earlier this year.

The courthouse was to be used for collateral but the bank said it would not insure title to the building unless it was transferred from the Superior Court judges to the city of Red Bluff.

Superior Court Judges Richard Hultgren, 54, and Noel Watkins, 55, said a county courthouse could not be deeded to a city. So special legislation was introduced to allow transfer of title to the county, and that satisfied the bank.

The history of why Superior Court judges have title to the Tehama County Courthouse goes back to the very beginnings of Red Bluff in the 1850s.

J. Grandville Doll originally laid out the town on land that he had bought from California for $1.25 an acre. He sold and gave away lots without conducting an adequate survey. Several lots ended up with multiple ownership.

Much of the land that he “bought” from the state was in fact federal property that the state had no right to sell. The U.S. Department of the Interior filed suit to recover ownership. The matter ended up in Congress and a special act signed by President Andrew Johnson in 1867 was aimed at straightening out the mess.

The act placed title to all of the lots in Red Bluff in the name of the person considered Tehama County’s most trustworthy resident at the time, Superior Court Judge Charles P. Braynard.

Braynard proceeded to unsnarl the claims and counterclaims until eventually all titles were cleared up but the judge and his judicial successors retained title to all of the streets and alleys in Red Bluff as well as the county courthouse.

When Watkins was named to the bench in 1975, succeeding Judge Curtiss E. Wetter, he was only the fourth Superior Court judge in the history of the county. A second Superior Court was established here in 1985 with the appointment of Hultgren.

‘Turning Over in Grave’

“Judge Wetter is probably turning over in his grave. He would really be upset about transferring title to the courthouse to the county,” said attorney Rawlins Coffman, 76, lifelong friend and former law partner of Wetter.

“Judge Wetter was a darn good courtroom actor. He let everybody know he held title to the courthouse and all the streets and alleys of Red Bluff. He thought it was a unique bit of history up here that ought to be preserved,” Supervisor Hoffman said.

When local residents complained about chuckholes in the streets and alleys of Red Bluff, Wetter would always say if people looked where they were going they wouldn’t run over the holes.

Title to the streets and alleys was transferred to the city in 1976, over the protests of then-retired Judge Wetter. Transfer was necessary because the city needed to abandon one block to build a new jail. Title was transferred by Watkins, who had taken ownership when Wetter retired.