"All of that part of the SE 1/4 of Section XX, Township XX South, Range XX West of the 6th P.M. lying Easterly and Northerly of State Highway No. A as situated March 23, 1960 (157.00 a, more or less)"
No deed or docuemnt found for S.H. A, in any records. Does this adjoiner own to the centerline of the road as it was situated in 1960, easterly and northerly of the traveled way, or to the fence that has been there and maintained to still today? Something else?
Using acreage to the centerline and the found section corner monuments shows to be around 150 acres.
Thank you for your input.
Unless the ROW is held in fee, I would probably use the best location of the C/L's location in 1960 if I could not find evidence to the contrary after a diligent search. What does the deed description on the other side say? If it was the parent tract of the one you are asking about, the most reasonable interpretation would be to center line unless including the row matches the acreage given on the description, that might indicate that the owner of the parent tract included the row in the sale. Need to do more research, maybe you will find the true intent, 1960 is not that long ago that someone knowing the intent might be still alive to ask. Heck I was involved in a shipwreck in 1960, seems like yesterday.
jud
Will either depend on State law and/or deed language.
In CA, it is in the law, in a couple of locations that unless a different intent is clearly stated, road RWs are easements and the fee of adjacent properties is presumed to go to the centerline. (Code of Civil Procedure §2077, and Civil Code §831)
BUT, the State typically acquires RW in fee. That's probably in case they later want to create a limited access freeway in place of the highway.
Check CO statutes pertaining to interpreting descriptions and pertaining to property ownership. You may also find it in the Streets & Highways Code (whatever the CO equivalent is). If you can't find it codified, it seems like a question that would have been answered by the state courts at some point.
Many times condemnation proceedings are never filed in the deeds office as they are court matters. I've had fun tackling this challenge several times. At times, the State DOT will have exactly what you need. Sometimes they don't because the condemnation was carried out by the county or city.
Thanks for the input gentlemen.