Can't say that in 49 years of doing this, I've ever run into this; hoping for some sage advice from the good people on this board.
I'm doing a Boundary line Adjustment for a client that owns all 3 parcels. It is in a rural part of the county and a total of about 80 acres. Simple reasons to do this, so it should be simple, right?
They provided all 3 title reports; there are several discrepancies. As an example, parcel A is has a line described as thence North 26-24-48 West a distance of 511.98 feet to the South Boundary of Jensen-Christian County Road. Parcel B describes the same line as Thence South 26-28-13 East a distance of 498.47 feet. In parcel B the call is coming from the point on Jensen-Christian County Road. Jensen-Christian County Road was established by petition a century ago so I believe that the discrepancy is coming from the different interpretations of the location of the traveled way.
Has anyone else had this type of a situation? I sure would like to hear how it was resolved, if you did.
TIA
Just in case anyone is curious; Rock-A-Billy is in the queue today:
Well, the 12ish foot difference seems like it could be the difference between the edge of gravel and the middle of the road.
Is this a PLSS state? Is there a section line down this road? How is the right of way determined in this area?
Not really enough given to make any armchair call but given the outline, my mind wonders to the first in deed filing and nailing down the ROW or centerline of the road.
What also piques my interest is the fact that you are working on a boundary line agreement where you have some flexibility to make the call on where the lines do not conflict with occupation but the root of the issue seems to be in the determinations of where the road actually was intended to be.
The ones that we think are easy almost always come with a hitch.
13.5 feet short is a lot. The angle difference amounts to 0.5 feet, so can probably be ignored. The big question I have is what is the bearing of the road centerline. If there was ever a road in the area that actually ran north or east, the difference amounts to 5.57 too far east and 12.32 (or 11.82) too far south compared to the data from parcel A. Anything in the Registers Office mentioning a road widening at any time in the past century?
The focus is on the same title company giving 2 different descriptions for the same line. At this point, everything else is inconsequential.
Some early roads in this county were created by petition. Settlers would petition the county to establish a road to access their homesteads. The descriptions were vague at best. If you’re lucky you get a couple of surveyors to agree on a location and everyone else follows suit. That’s rare.
I’m contacting the title company tomorrow. My goal will be to pick one and run with it. But which one and how to pick it?
Dougie
Well obviously the title company is getting these bearing and distance from somewhere. Where? A previous deed?
This is a latent ambiguity, for which parol evidence may be considered to resolve. Is there any occupation line?
When the road is established by petition does it become owned in fee by the county/state or is it just a ROW easement? Does your client own to the centerline or just to the ROW? Did someone create a prescriptive ROW after the longer deed line was written and this was used when the shorter deed line was written? Was the longer deed line on a deed created prior to the petition for ROW and the shorter deed line on a deed created after the petition for ROW?
The title company is typically regurgitating documents without any attempt made to rectify conflicts until someone brings the problem to their attention.
Love that music video.
