I am working on a little dispute out here on the Sand Bar and ran across this funny little tid-bit.
Dec. 30, 2009 description:
Since the dispute involves this properties southerly line location I ran the deeds back to find out a few things, like, does the description improve? And, was this ever a part of our locus?
In a deed from Nov. 27, 1882 I find this description:
Look Familiar?
Just one of the fun parts of dealing with these ancient descriptions. I can only imagine what sort of remedies y'all might offer. For myself, I'm not looking to resolve the neighbors title issue (if any exists), only the common boundary line.
I'm glad that the problem lies on our southerly line and not with this neighbor!
In my world it would be something like:
Beginning 20 chains west of the center of section.......thence northwesterly 100 feet; thence southwesterly 35 feet; thence northeasterly 112 feet; thence southwesterly 35 feet to the Point of Beginning.
Our forefathers didn't need any calls to anything! Yeah and the center of the section has never been officially marked to date and most of the section corners are seriously obliterated and further have multiple points punched in as if they were lost. The chances of a dispute are slim until a surveyor shows up.
New improved description
I just read a new "improved" description of a lot in a recorded subdivision, no problems in the area, all of the monuments are in and pretty much fit record, and this fool re-wrote the description as a metes with not one call to any of the lot lines or any of the monuments.
I kid you not.
New improved description
How do you say something like "to 2 inch pipe with a brass tablet engraved......" in math? You don't! To lots of folks only the numbers matter. Apparently they haven't spent that much time on the ground trying to make all these clean numbers, that add up perfectly in the fictional record, fit together on the ground. (and it wasn't surveyors that created this mess, my rural area didn't have much access to expensive surveyors.)
Most numbers only descriptions are ambiguous, which where I work is almost the complete record. Aliquot part descriptions are not far behind, beautiful in principle, a disaster in practicality, as soon as one corner is lost or obliterated it's a slippery slope straight down from there. The law needs to be applied to solve these problems, not math formulas, your computer, CAD, and survey instruments.
The description only tells you where to look for the monuments.
If the monuments established/accepted by the owners is not where the description says they should be, the description is inaccurate and a correct description must be placed in the record so that future surveyors will be looking in the 'right' place.
In WI, there are many lot descriptions that do not match the subdivision plat and many of those are corrected using the state Assessor's Plat Law, ss 70.27. Check www.wsls.org for Mr Rhode's explanation for the process that is used to correct inaccurate record subdivisions.
Richard Schaut
