I found this note/sign by a 1/4 corner yesterday.?ÿ My surveying dictionary says that parol evidence is oral, but it defines parol as "...by a writing not under seal."?ÿ Would you consider this parol evidence, or something else??ÿ I haven't been able to contact the landowner yet to get testimony.
If you can't read from the picture, it says, "Do not move this post it is over corner stake put in by SURVEYOR May 18, 1948.?ÿ Re-surveyed May 6 1970"?ÿ Neither the 1948 nor the 1970 survey were recorded.
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I will utilize this as parole evidence, or, best evidence. Even if I am not positive it would pass courtroom test, something only lawyers can ruin, my job is to find and retrace what was set before me, to the best of my ability, and THAT can be upheld.
Well, it is physical and it is evidence so maybe it's physical evidence.?ÿ Again, not normally what we think of when we see the terms parol or physical evidence.
Around here it would be considered at least an unrecorded referenced location, or if you wish, parol evidence.?ÿ In Oklahoma we still have thousands of?ÿ unrecorded corners that are NOT the originally placed corner but are accepted as a perpetuation of the original monument.?ÿ A recorded survey of such would be quite a luxury.
Barring any huge discrepancies with the original notes I'd probably call it good and move on. Noting, of course, what you have found there today...it may be gone tomorrow.?ÿ
I am definitely planning on accepted the post as the best available evidence of the original corner. I thought this was a smart decision by whoever made the sign, to perpetuate the corner in the field long after they are/were gone. Recording the Plat would have been nice, of course, but the chances of an adjoiner checking the records to learn about the post are close to zero. This made my job much easier at the end of a long day!
2 weeks ago I was Surveying 4 tracts and none of them fit together worth a darn so finding some of the corners was proving difficult. As I was breaking down my base unit one of the neighbors down the road and on the other side called over to me and inquired what I was doing so I went over and explained. I told him I was having a tough time with 1 particular corner. It just so happened he was familiar with that because a former owner of the adjoining property had built a building over the line by about 1 foot. The only thing remaining of that building now is a bit of a concrete block foundation but this man remembered when the previous owner repaired motorcycles there and that previous owner had told him that he had constructed that building over the line. So he walked the few hundred feet down there with me and after about 10 minutes of removing some debris sure enough there was the old pipe with old flagging ribbon on it.?ÿ
I like parole evidence, especially when it helps me find the original corner.?ÿ
I try to do most of my fieldwork on the weekends. I'm more likely to run into people that know the history of the neighborhood.
A marked monument.?ÿ