Whenever the public records in the office of the county recorder of any county are lost or destroyed in whole or in any material part by flood, fire, earthquake, enemy attack, or from any other cause, any person who claims an estate of inheritance or for life in, and who is by himself, or his tenant or other person holding under him in the actual and peaceable possession of, any real property in the county may bring and maintain an action in rem against all the world, in the superior court for the county in which such real property is situate, to establish his title to such property and to determine all adverse claims thereto.
Such action may also be brought in the county in which the real property is situate if any real property is in another county, but was formerly in the county of which all or a material part of the records were so lost or destroyed, and if the lost or destroyed records included all or a material part of the public records in the office of the county recorder covering all or a material part of the time when the real property was in the county whose records were so lost or destroyed.
(Added by Stats. 1953, Ch. 52.)