Way back in 1907 Mr. Smith owned a fair sized chunk of ground that is now completely inside the city limits of a small town. He sold off numerous chunks of various sizes. With one collection of four tracts, he described them from the right-of-way line of the county road instead of the section line as he had done with all other tracts he split out. This resulted in my client's deed having one side that says to go 475 feet west, then turn south for 81 feet, then go 140 feet west to the section line. The senior deeds had their east lines 165 feet east of the section line because they were described as being 140 feet east of the right-of-way line which was 25 feet east of the section line. No one had ever noticed this overlap of 25 feet by 81 feet, including the county appraiser's office. They simply kept the other tracts where they were supposed to be and ignored the overlap.
So, here I am trying to explain to the 80 year-old lady who is the third generation to own this erroneously described tract how it is that I'm the only intelligent person to come along in 105 years.
Yeah, try doing it with a 90 year old blind man. He draws on my map and onto the dining room table, showing me how his land is laid out. He was Deeded 50 acres, but his rectangle tract only calculated to 42 acres. He sold 2 acres to a flimflam man that sold 4.5 acres back to him. I had to explain another 2.5 acres that he did not own. Kill the messenger!
Real conversation with a client:
Client: I told you the legal description is the North 100 feet, and this is the second time I've told you that your drawing shows 100.12 feet on the East line. It has to be 100 feet.
Me: The 100 feet is the perpendicular measurement; the East line is at a slant so is slightly longer.
Client: Oh.
>He sold 2 acres to a flimflam man that sold 4.5 acres back to him.
That's funny!
Had to explain to an elderly woman that her corner wasn't where she thought it was while she insisted that I was wrong because she "measured it with her 50' garden hose and she knows damn well where it is."
Just blame it on the realtor.
If you guys would just ignore monuments, then everything would come out PERFECTLY!
It's a whole lot easier
to explain when there is more than expected. I did a survey for a fellow who had bought "40 acres more or less" that had not been surveyed. He had sold 2 acres to a daughter and wanted to cut out about 5 acres that was isolated from the rest on the other side of the highway. When we finished surveying (and locating all the adjoiners lines and monuments) he was left with 40 acres after the 2 acre and 5 acre tracts were removed. He was a nice older man who showed up wherever we were in the middle of the afternoon with a cold Coca Cola. It wouldn't make any difference but it is nice to see good folks come out on top once in a while. By the way all the adjoiners agreed with the lines and set monuments.
Andy
