For those unaware of the importance of monuments.?ÿ
Dueteronomy 19:14"Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour's landmark?ÿBy which one man's land is distinguished from another; for so to do is to injure a man's property, and alienate his lands to the use of another, which must be a very great evil, and render those that do it obnoxious to a curse".
This is hardly the only ancient text dealing with monuments. It's a long held foundation principal of western civilization that monuments are important to property ownership.?ÿ
Can it be argued that the act of pincushioning is, at least partly, "removing" thy neighbour's landmark? It's certainly casting aspersions on the landmark. Can that be considered slander of title?
What is the surveyors responsibility when confronted with disputing monuments, what do you do to "protect the public".
Interesting questions.
First of all many of our "long held foundations and principals of western civilization" and Bible readings are under attack and being destroyed as I write.
We have a few practitioners in my area that report virtual pin cushions. That is, they call the monument (many times the original undisturbed monument) such as, N45E, 0.17' from computed corner (and set nothing at computed point). I don't agree with this method of surveying but on the other hand ( I think another surveyor from another forum calls it the "two point tango", find two points that fit well and call the rest out of position), it is another way of showing the exactness of our measurements. I mean 0.17'/300' may not be considered 1st rate surveying in a surveyors world but to the layman who owns standard valued property for his area it seems like a reasonable reporting.
As far as calling out surveyors, I think in years past, there were local respected surveyors that would call out poor practitioners and they would listen. Now, in our over dependence on regulations and government controlled boards the good practitioners have disappeared and now our society is reliant on state boards and civil suits to be the regulator of our practice. What I call a race to the bottom. I think the only saving factor is the ability for the poorest practitioner to measure adequately with newer measuring technology.
I find it interesting that surveyors in my geographic area of practice do nothing to perpetuate the cadastral. I mean they compute the missing block corner (660'x 1320') and set the 4 corners of their clients prorated lot (50'x 70'). Or compute the center section (without setting a monument) and set monuments at the clients 10 ac tract within a never before split section (this includes government surveyors). I was taught to leave the evidence so future surveyors can follow it my footsteps, which is hard to do when working from geometry from the inside out instead of outside in.
My 2 cents, Jp
That, case law, record and principle make it unlikely that I would ever pull up a wayward monument. The inverse makes it difficult for me the set the second monument. Once I am the third, all scruples go out the window.
In PLSSia, the common situation today is that the various mounuments around the section may have been set by different surveyors in different decades tackling surveys in the adjoining sections rather than the subject section. Performing ultra-precise mathemagical manuevers on such unrelated monuments will definitely produce aliquot parts that are not nearly as precise as what the mathemagcian believes them to be.
Some lite reading for those so inclined...
It must be. It includes most of the US west of the Appalachians.
It is interesting how differently worded the various versions are.
In the versions I've read, there was a section along the lines of 'set by the older generation' included in those passages. Perhaps one of the earliest references to original monuments.
A colleague raised the discussion point of what constitutes a good monument a couple of years back. He was particularly discussing the fact that (at least in the area I practice in) when what I'll call modern monuments are set, they are rebar with a identifying cap on top and are almost always driven flush, or nearly so, with the ground. Then some form of temporary accessory such as a wooden stake is driven beside them.
Within the first paragraph of the article @dougie posted is "Furthermore, the rule assumes that the monuments will remain visible to subsequent purchasers of the land, but as land is developed, the monuments are often destroyed or moved."
I've changed to about 2" diameter aluminum caps so that they are a little more visible when close to flush with the ground. I hesitate to leave them up too far from flush as they are then subject to a mower blade or bush hog. A fence post as a marker beside them works great as long as it's not someone's golf course of a lawn where they do not want a post in their yard.
It would be great to be able to set monuments that would never be overlooked, moved, destroyed or questioned. I wonder if the purchase and installation cost of a 2'X2'x10' granite obelisk would fit into a job budget.
When things go wrong.
Many years ago a survey was performed of a property lying east of the north-south centerline of a standard section. Several years later the same surveyor performed a survey for the adjoiner property on the west side of the line. Somehow, the location of the south quarter corner is now about 50 feet east of where it was on the first survey, creating a conflict of 20 feet, more or less between the adjoiners.
Sometime after that another hapless surveyor, basing his information on the first surveyor’s information, surveys additional property to the east and sets a proper monument for the C-S sixteenth corner among other monuments. I don’t know the reasons, but a complaint is filed with the State Board and the latest surveyor is sanctioned. He is fined and instructed to remove the erroneous survey monuments he has set. He removes the C-S sixteenth corner as instructed, but legend has it he decided he was not going to comply with the sanctions and sent in his license and went to work jumping stakes for a construction company. I felt a little bad for the guy who based his work on the work of a preceding surveyor only to lose his license at the time.
I was involved with the eventual lawsuit resulting from actions of the first surveyor, who ultimately suffered the same consequences of losing his license. As a result I became aware of the history of the surveys.
Years later we are gearing up for some major highway construction and I note the removed corner is listed as a section control monument for the project. I go take a look at it and it is a shiny new CDOT monument set in the hole left when the sanctioned surveyor removed his monument. I contact the welll-respected Surveyor whose number is on the monument and he explains that they re-established the monument using the corner record filed with the state, and the data indicated it fell right in the hole. I told him the story and the last I heard was from the State attorney General’s office who wanted the whole story. As far as I know that monument is still out there.
The Removing Opposing Survey Pin after Court Judgement thread reminded me of this sad story.