Hunting Heirs Turns On a Deed : Property rights: Two men help descendants of those who gave land to railroads and communities to try to win back ownership or get a settlement.

John Percival Jones and Robert S. Baker sat down in 1875 with a map of their massive land holdings, including Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica , to design a model city.

The two land barons--Jones, a silver magnate and U.S. senator from Nevada, and Baker, a Rhode Islander lured west by the Gold Rush--plotted a town with ample parks, schools and a railroad line that they hoped would spur growth.

To assure that their plan for Santa Monica and neighboring communities was carried out, the two partners deeded the land with restrictions that required railroad entrepreneurs and public officials to give the properties back to them--or their descendants--if they ever closed down the parks, rail lines and other improvements the men envisioned.

Jones and Baker probably could not have imagined that, in planning their dream town, they were laying the groundwork for two of their descendants to create a cottage industry.

Today, more than a century later, Jones’ grandson and Baker’s great-great-nephew have used restrictions such as the ones in those historic deeds to lay claim to property all over Los Angeles County. John Percival Farquhar, 78, and Ricardo Johnson, 43, have invoked the historical deeds in lawsuits on behalf of themselves and hundreds of heirs of other early Californians.

In doing so, the unlikely partners--Farquhar, a gray-haired former research chemist, and Johnson, a tanned erstwhile tennis instructor--have created an unusual and sometimes lucrative endeavor that combines equal parts history, genealogy and property law.

They have brought in at least $680,000 over the last four years and opposing lawyers say they do not know of any other firm that does the work of Farquhar & Associates.

The pair’s latest lawsuit moved forward last month, when a Torrance Superior Court judge rejected a motion by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co. that sought to overturn their claim, on behalf of 88 heirs, to a 2.1-mile railroad right of way in Manhattan Beach. The railroad abandoned the property in 1983 and the town uses the land as a park and running path.

Farquhar and Johnson see themselves as defenders of the rights of small-time property heirs against powerful railroads and government agencies.

Their opponents say that the partners’ work added about $2 million to the price West Hollywood paid to buy a median strip along Santa Monica Boulevard and clouds attempts by Manhattan Beach to permanently dedicate the abandoned railway line as a park and running path.

Johnson and Farquhar do not respond to such criticisms. In fact, they do not like to talk about their business at all.

“We have put a lot of time and money into this,” Johnson said in a previous interview. To talk would be “like giving away secrets. We have our own way of doing it.”

Farquhar and Johnson’s disdain for publicity is reflected in their work. They do not have an office or employees. They do not advertise. They seem to thrive in the obscurity of the County Hall of Records, recorder’s office and courtrooms, where most of their work is done.

Farquhar’s introduction to the field came in 1957, when he and other Jones and Baker heirs fought for compensation for property near Santa Monica City Hall that the city had condemned. Jones and Baker’s descendants said they should be paid because the property had been set aside exclusively for a Pacific Electric Railway station.

The litigation over the property where the Santa Monica courthouse stands dragged on for 15 years, until the city agreed to pay a $150,000 settlement in 1972.

“That’s when I first got in touch with all the Baker family,” Farquhar said. “And we have worked together since.”

While the two families had sold the vast tracts of land they owned on the Westside, they believed that many of the portions granted to railroads and government agencies might have to be returned because of reversionary rights.

Farquhar and Johnson come upbon their cases in a variety of ways: They learned of one while talking to a friend and another while researching a historical book on beach communities they say they are writing.

Once they become interested in a property, the partners check deeds in the County Hall of Records to learn whether the land was to return to the original owners if it ceased to be used as specified. If such deed restrictions exist, they begin to track down the early owner’s heirs--using local histories, birth and death records and interviews with family members.

Heirs, who usually know nothing of the historical deeds, give Farquhar and Johnson up to a one-half share in the properties in exchange for their research and pursuit of the claims.

That was essentially the formula that led to the pair’s most successful case, in which they claimed ownership of much of a 1.1-mile-long strip of the Santa Monica Boulevard median in West Hollywood on behalf of more than 100 heirs.

The county moved to condemn the property in 1982, after Southern Pacific Railroad closed its freight line there. Shortly after its incorporation in 1984, West Hollywood voted to buy the condemned property. But after Farquhar and Johnson intervened, the dispute over how much the land was worth dragged on until this year.

West Hollywood had been permitted to pay a total of $110,000 for three sections of right of way when no heirs appeared to argue that they were worth more.

Then Farquhar and Johnson learned about the case.

In less than two months of searching in 1986, court documents say, they tracked down the descendants of three historical landowners. Their lawyer argued that the heirs had not been properly notified of the condemnation and a Los Angeles Superior Court judge reopened the case.

Settlements of $250,000 and $328,750 were negotiated for two of the families. The third case went to trial. A jury last spring ordered West Hollywood to pay the plaintiffs $1,139,000 for their shares of the land.

Farquhar & Associates received half of the two settlements and about one-third of the jury award, court records show, for a total of about $680,000.

The heir hunters declined to discuss the settlements.

David Swall, a cotton farmer in Tulare, Calif., believes he is typical of the more than 100 descendants of Elizabeth Swall who shared in the $328,750 settlement.

He had heard that his great-great-grandmother had given a piece of her land in West Hollywood to the Pasadena and Pacific Railway Co., but he was not much interested. Then Farquhar and Johnson paid him a visit.

“I was initially a little bit suspicious,” Swall said. “They seemed mysterious.”

Swall and other descendants decided they did not have the time or legal expertise to fight the case, so they signed over half their interest to Farquhar & Associates.

When the case was settled, family members around the country received shares ranging from $215 to $5,664, depending on how closely related they were to the family matriarch, Swall said. He collected $350.

“That probably about paid my phone bill,” Swall chuckled. “We spent lots of time on the phone with relatives talking about the case. It was very interesting. We ran into some parts of the family we didn’t even know existed.”

A trial date is to be set next spring in the lawsuit they filed against the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co. and Manhattan Beach. The partners claim that the heirs they represent should have received title to the right of way when when the city abandoned it in 1983. The plaintiffs have said that if they win their property claim, they will challenge zoning that requires the 100-foot-wide strip of land to remain open space.

In August, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Los Angeles federal judge in rejecting a claim by Jones and Baker heirs that they owned a 2.1-acre section of the Veterans Administration property in Brentwood that the federal government had attempted to sell to a developer as surplus. An 1888 deed for 300 acres said the land should be “permanently maintained” as a veterans home. The court ruled that the historical deed did not clearly state that the property should revert to the original owners in the event that the land changes hands.

In February, Farquhar reached an out-of-court settlement with the Southwest Museum in Mt. Washington over ownership of an oil painting, “Mount Hood in Oregon.” The museum proposed selling the painting, valued at up to $4 million, but Farquhar said it was a gift from his grandmother and should be returned to him if the museum wanted to let it go. Southwest Museum still holds the landscape by Albert Bierstadt.

Farquhar and Johnson are mum about future projects.

But when discussing the history of the Westside, Farquhar recalled that his family donated much of Santa Monica Canyon to the state for operation of a forestry station. The state sold the land to businessmen without the family’s permission, he said.

“That is something that I might have to look into, one of these days,” Farquhar said, smiling demurely. “Property rights are being taken away,” he said. “And all these old-timers . . . lose out.”