Whatever. But...
Always consider the person who will read the description. Will they understand the meaning without and explanation of word choice?
Alternatively, there is "Beginning of Layout", and, "End of Layout" to describe a center line location.
And avoid using, "either side of said center line", when you actually mean, "each side".?ÿ Just a minor pet peeve.....
Also, our Department of Transportation uses the phrase "End of Layout" to mean end of funding for a particular phase. In subsequent years there may be more beginnings and endings as more funding is available until the terminus is reached. Thus, the "End of Layout" is not necessarily the terminus.?ÿ
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Posted by: JP
And avoid using, "either side of said center line", when you actually mean, "each side".?ÿ Just a minor pet peeve.....
I wouldn't relegate that to a pet peeve when it may be flat out wrong.?ÿ "Either" gives someone the choice to pick one but only one side. "Each side" or "both sides" says that two sides are intended.
Whatever. But...
Always consider the person who will read the description. Will they understand the meaning without and explanation of word choice?
Alternatively, there is "Beginning of Layout", and, "End of Layout" to describe a center line location.
And avoid using, "either side of said center line", when you actually mean, "each side".?ÿ Just a minor pet peeve.....
Not just a minor pet peeve. Words mean things, and courts will usully apply their meanings.?ÿ
And avoid using, "either side of said center line", when you actually mean, "each side".?ÿ Just a minor pet peeve.....
It is more than a minor pet peeve. Wattles addresses this phrasing in Writing Legal Descriptions. Imprecise language is shark food.?ÿ?ÿ
I prefer to use perimeter/metes and bounds descriptions but won't shy away from using centerline descriptions when the perimeter description adds little value. For an easement that fronts a road right-of-way or has a margin that is coincident to a property line or other easement along it's length, then I typically use a perimeter description. An easement that runs loose across a property gets a centerline description. It also depends on how many easements I have to do. At my former employer, I had a job for a new force main and the alignment was 7.5 miles long crossing around 100 properties. That's a lot of new easements for one man to do. Because of the monotony of preparing so many easements and the time constraints of the project it was simply faster to prepare easement exhibits and descriptions with centerline calls. It was half as many calls to type out and then recheck for errors.
For language I use "Point-of-Beginning" and "to the Terminus." I really like "Terminus" because of the association with the Roman god and because it sounds so authoritative.
I prefer "termination" and I'm the one with the license, being told by someone without a license that I'm basically supposed to sign whatever is put in front of me "as long as the numbers are correct"... to which I'm fundamentally opposed.
My practical answer to this is that if the wording is clear, don't worry about the style.?ÿ ?ÿBut...
Having one specific option to something that is essentially a professional decision, even if the forced option is otherwise acceptable just irritates me enough to say no even if it's just for the sake of being contrary - even if the one trying to force the choice is higher up in the organization.
But IMO, there is a bit more at stake here than the almost meaningless matter of POE vs POT, particularly if this is the first time something like this has happened to you.?ÿ If the unlicensed person tries to push his/her authority for this, what more significant matters may come up where the choice will matter.?ÿ When that happens, regardless of who is higher in the corporate food chain, where will the responsibility for that decision land should problems arise because of it?
If you roll over on this matter now, you will have already lent some validation to that person overriding your professional authority on other things later and pushing back will be more difficult when it really matters.
In my current position, if someone else writes a description for me to sign and the only issues I have with it are writing style preferences, I'll just go with it.?ÿ If there are also some technical issues I need to send it back for, I'll often mark changes to reflect my preferred style.?ÿ But thus far, I have not had anyone try to tell me that I must sign & stamp something that I didn't want to sign.?ÿ If that had happened, I'd be pretty quick to draw the line in the sand - or chisel it in the rock.
On one occasion, the lawyers upstairs wanted me to provide an opinion that I did not agree with in a report.?ÿ I told them that if they could provide me with the appropriate legal underpinning to show why the conclusion they wanted me to draw was actually the correct interpretation of the boundary matter at issue, I would put the opinion they were looking for in my report.?ÿ They couldn't or wouldn't, so they reassigned the project to a surveyor who was willing to sign whatever our legal folks told him to sign without questioning it.?ÿ?ÿ
The boundary unit supervisor had agreed with me and agreed when I asked for a legal memo on the matter before I would consider changing my opinion.?ÿ But he made the reassignment when legal asked/demanded it anyway.?ÿ Speaking later with the surveyor who it was reassigned to, I found that he agreed with me on the underlying matter yet had provided the desired conclusion without question.?ÿ This is one of the reasons I am very unlikely to ever be a supervisor here.?ÿ Had I been the supervisor, I would have backed a well-reasoned and principled stand by one of my licensed staff, and if forced to reassign, I would have ensured that whoever the project was reassigned to had a very good understanding of the underlying issues and what had led to the reassignment before they decide whether or not to provide a differing opinion.
When it comes to times when it would matter, I don't understand why a licensed professional would provide a certain opinion simply because that's what they are told is expected, not fully understanding the issues the opinion speaks to and not making an attempt to learn.?ÿ I doubt I ever will.?ÿ I don't have much respect for a licensed professional who would provide an opinion which goes against their professional judgment, whether as a business/career decision, or simply as a matter of capitulation, and I doubt I ever will.
For language I use "Point-of-Beginning" and "to the Terminus." I really like "Terminus" because of the association with the Roman god and because it sounds so authoritative.
I go one step further and write the whole description in latin.?ÿ Cuts down on calls from other surveyors nit-picking my grammar.
?ÿ ?ÿI had an SIT working for at a firm years ago that had come from another "low-baller" firm.?ÿ This firm frequently used the term "new-made line" which drove my inner grammar nazi crazy.?ÿ He used that term while working under me and argued the point with me because he believed in it.?ÿ Good for him to stick up for what he believed in.?ÿ However, I do like consistency when possible, in the same company, not to mention my name and stamp was going on it so it got changed.?ÿ I don't know if that correction ever stuck with or not.?ÿ I start at a Point of Beginning and end at the Point of Beginning.?ÿ If I were to use a different ending, I like Terminus better.
