against disturbing survey markers.
Florida yes.
177.121 Misdemeanor to molest monument or deface or destroy map or plat.--It is a misdemeanor of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083, for any person to molest any monuments established according to this part or to deface or destroy any map or plat placed on public record.
> against disturbing survey markers.
>
> Florida yes.
>
> 177.121 Misdemeanor to molest monument or deface or destroy map or plat.--It is a misdemeanor of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083, for any person to molest any monuments established according to this part or to deface or destroy any map or plat placed on public record.
Actually, don't you need to post the part that describes what qualifies as a monument for the purposes of that statute?
Are there monument molesters in Florida? Or did they just convert another molestation law? Inquiring minds want to know.
177.031 Definitions.--As used in this part:
1-21 ommited.
(22) "Monument" means a survey marker which must:
(a) Be composed of a durable material.
(b) Have a minimum length of 18 inches.
(c) Have a minimum cross-section area of material of 0.2 square inches.
(d) Be identified with a durable marker or cap bearing either the Florida registration number of the professional surveyor and mapper in responsible charge or the certificate of authorization number of the legal entity, which number shall be preceded by LS or LB as applicable.
(e) Be detectable with conventional instruments for locating ferrous or magnetic objects.
If the location of the monument falls in a hard surface such as asphalt or concrete, alternate monumentation may be used that is durable and identifiable.
Iowa - Yes.
Just signed and passed this year. You can read the bill by clicking here (Change to Iowa Code Sec. 716.6).
Made it a crime of criminal mischief in the 4th degree, a serious misdemeanor, that I believe is punishable by confinement for no more than one year and a fine of at least $315 but not more than $1,875.
ARKANSAS
Damage or Destruction of Property
5-38-214. Willful removal or destruction of landmarks established by legal survey.
(a) Any person who willfully cuts down, destroys, defaces, removes, or carries off any
witness tree, monument, or other landmark established by legal survey and used to delineate a boundary line is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor.
(b) Furthermore, in any civil suit involving damages to property arising from the removal or destruction of a marker established by a legal survey, the complaining party is entitled to recover three (3) times the damages.
History. Acts 1963, No. 247, § 1; 1977, No. 807, § 7; A.S.A. 1947, § 41-1976; Acts 2005, No.1994, § 348.
Destruction of Section Corners in Improvement Districts
14-86-501.
Applicability.
The provisions of this subchapter shall apply to engineers and commissioners in all
improvement districts in this state.
History. Acts 1921, No. 82, § 4; Pope's Dig., § 3222; A.S.A. 1947, § 20-1108.
14-86-502.
Penalty.
(a) (1) Any engineer or commissioner who shall neglect, fail, or refuse to comply with any of the provisions of this subchapter shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be fined in any sum not less than fifty dollars ($50.00) nor more than two hundred fifty dollars ($250).
(2) Twenty-five dollars ($25.00) of the fine shall be paid to the informer.
(b) Each corner destroyed where there is a failure to comply with the provisions of this
subchapter as to corners shall constitute a separate offense.
History. Acts 1921, No. 82, §§ 3, 5; Pope's Dig., §§ 3221, 3223; A.S.A. 1947, §§ 20-1107, 20-1109.
14-86-503.
Duty to perform.
(a) It is made the duty of the commissioners of any district to cause the work described in §14-86-504 to be done by the engineers.
(b) All corners destroyed shall be reestablished at once during the time construction work is being done in the district.
History. Acts 1921, No. 82, § 2; Pope's Dig., § 3220; A.S.A. 1947, § 20-1106.
14-86-504.
Location of corners and notes required.
(a) (1) It shall be the duty of all engineers in the employ of any improvement district in this state or engineers doing any work for the improvement district, if the doing of the work or the construction of the improvement, or any work connected therewith, destroys any section corner or quarter section corner, to locate each corner so destroyed correctly in accord with the United States survey field notes of the corner and cause to be erected reference monuments of some indestructible material, which may be either concrete, stone, galvanized iron pipe, or cast iron posts not less than two-by-four inches (2" x 4") and sunk in the ground not less than three feet (3').
(2) The posts or monuments shall be placed forty-five degrees (45°) N. E., forty-five
degrees (45°) N. W., forty-five degrees (45°) S. W., and forty-five degrees (45°) S. E., if possible, from the corner and shall be far enough away from the corner so as not to be covered up or destroyed in constructing the improvements.
(b) (1) A copy of the engineer's notes of his locating the survey of each corner and the
monuments thereto shall be kept. The notes shall tell how he proceeded in locating each corner, giving the course and distance from the true corner that each witness or monument is placed, and the kind of monument. The notes shall be so full and complete that any surveyor can, from the notes, find the corner without difficulty.
(2) The notes shall be filed by the engineer in the office of the county clerk in the county in which the corners are situated and shall be recorded by the clerk in a book kept for that purpose. The book shall be correctly indexed as to section, township, and range so as to be readily referred to or found from the index.
(c) The cost or charge for locating the corners and recording the notes shall be paid by the district as a part of the cost of the construction of the improvement.
History. Acts 1921, No. 82, § 1; Pope's Dig., § 3219; A.S.A. 1947, § 20-1105.
in Maryland...
§ 14-111. Survey markers.
(a) Type required.- Each individual licensed to practice land surveying or property line surveying under the Maryland Professional Land Surveyors Act shall use the type of stake, marker, monument, or other landmark designated by the State Board for Professional Land Surveyors.
(b) Penalty for damage or removal of marker.- Any person who willfully obliterates, damages, or removes any stake, marker, monument, or other landmark set in the property of another person by any civil engineer, surveyor, or real estate appraiser or any of their assistants, except if the stake, marker, monument, or other landmark interferes with the proper use of the property, is guilty of a misdemeanor and on conviction shall be fined not more than $500.
(c) Boundary lines.- If there is a dispute over any boundary line or if the bounds mentioned in a document are lost, on petition of any party in interest, the circuit court of the county where the property lies may establish the boundary lines or the location of the missing bounds. The court may appoint engineers, surveyors, or other experts to assist the court in its determination, and the fees of the experts are costs in the proceeding.
[An. Code 1957, art. 21, § 14-111; 1974, ch. 12, § 2; 1982, ch. 877; 1983, ch. 7; 1989, ch. 236, § 2.]
courtesy Michie's legal resources
http://www.michie.com/maryland/lpext.dll?f=templates&fn=main-h.htm&cp=mdcode
Northern
Here in Florida we have a huge variety of molesters, must be something to do with the weather. On a side note do you ever do any surveying out Adak way?
RRain
In California it's Penal Code Section 605.
California Penal Code Section 605
Every person who either:
1. Maliciously removes any monument erected for the purpose of
designating any point in the boundary of any lot or tract of land, or
a place where a subaqueous telegraph cable lies; or,
2. Maliciously defaces or alters the marks upon any such monument;
or,
3. Maliciously cuts down or removes any tree upon which any such
marks have been made for such purpose, with intent to destroy such
marks;
--Is guilty of a misdemeanor.
I don't think that Kent's intent is malicious, misguided perhaps, but not malicious.
RRain
CA Penal Code 605 makes it a misdemeanor to "Maliciously remove any monument erected for the purpose of designating any point in the boundary of any lot or tract of land..." I don't think the monument has to meet the standards pertaining to surveyors regarding suitable materials and such. It could be a 2"X2" hub with no tag or some other flimsy marker as long as it is intended to mark a boundary.
As I have mentioned before, I worked on a case for the Board of Registration where a surveyor removed a monument and returned it to the surveyor who set it because he could tell it was set in error in a location not intended by the surveyor. The Board nailed him for it because it violated the standard of practice to remove any monument.
I don't believe Maine does (prove me wrong kids, prove me wrong).
Right, Randy. I think the hard part to prove would be the "malicious" part. If the person thinks he's doing a public service or it just gets in the way of his lawnmower, I don't think a judge would consider that malicious. I don't have any cases to back that opinion up with, though.
Kent;
Consider this topic my mia culpa and acquiescence to you argument about not being specifically and legally enjoined from a particular act or behavior. So now I'm curious how many states have enacted laws and regulations prohibiting removal of survey markers set by others and the specifics of those laws and regulations.
RRain
Michigan:
54.202 Definitions.
Sec. 2. As used in this act:
(a) “Property corner” means a geographic point on the surface of the earth, which is on, is a part of, and controls a property line.
(b) “Property controlling corner” for a property means a public land survey corner or any property corner which does not lie on a property line of the property in question but which controls the location of 1 or more of the property corners of the property in question.
(c) “Public land survey corner” means any corner actually established and monumented in an original survey or resurvey used as a basis of legal description for issuing a patent for the land to a private person from the United States government.
(d) “Corner”, unless otherwise qualified, means a property corner, a property controlling corner, a public land survey corner, or any combination of these.
(e) “Accessory”, with respect to a corner, means any exclusively identifiable physical object whose spatial relationship to the corner is recorded. Accessories may be bearing trees, bearing objects, monuments, reference monuments, line trees, pits, mounds, charcoal-filled bottles, steel or wooden stakes, or other objects.
(f) “Monument” means a marker that occupies the position of a corner and that possesses or is made to possess a magnetic field.
(g) “Reference monument” means a special monument that does not occupy the same geographical position as the corner itself but whose spatial relationship to the corner is recorded and that serves to witness the corner.
(h) “Surveyor” means a professional surveyor who is licensed to practice professional surveying under the occupational code, 1980 PA 299, MCL 339.101 to 339.2721.
54.210d Defacing, destroying, altering, or removing corner monument or reference monument; penalty; temporary removal; resetting; report; “person” defined.
Sec. 14. (1) A person who defaces, destroys, alters, or removes a corner monument or reference monument is guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000.00, or imprisonment for not more than 180 days, or both, and shall be responsible for the costs of reestablishment and replacement of the monument and filing of the corner record by a surveyor. A corner monument or reference monument may be temporarily removed for construction purposes if the corner is properly witnessed by a surveyor before removal. The monument shall be reset, rewitnessed, and refiled by a surveyor within 30 days after the completion of construction. A corner monument or reference monument shall not be temporarily removed for more than 1 year. A person who knows that a corner monument or reference monument has been defaced, destroyed, altered, or removed shall report that fact to the county surveyor of the county in which the corner is located.
(2) As used in this section, “person” means an individual, partnership, corporation, association, governmental entity, or other legal entity.
In (2) above, 'Surveyor' is not specifically mentioned but of a surety it is not excluded under the definition of "person"
Only highway boundary markers
Title 23: HIGHWAYS
Part 1: STATE HIGHWAY LAW
Chapter 13: CONSTRUCTION, MAINTENANCE AND REPAIRS
Subchapter 10: PERAMBULATION OF BOUNDARY LINE
§1114. Preservation of existing monuments
No person shall willfully or maliciously disturb or injure, or, except as otherwise provided in this subchapter, remove, obliterate, deface or cover up any monument or mark designating this boundary line of the State. Any persons desirous of removing and replacing any such monument or mark may apply in writing to the Department of Transportation, who may grant permission therefor under its supervision, first making provision for preserving the exact location of the original boundary or mark, and giving notice to the State of New Hampshire of the time and place at which proposed action is to be taken. The monument shall be reset in the identical location from which it was removed or at a convenient distance therefrom upon the boundary line. A full description of any change in such monument or mark, signed by the representatives of both states, shall be recorded with the Secretary of State. [1971, c. 593, §22 (AMD).]
Randy, I think all states have various laws against disturbing or destroying private property, which survey monuments certainly are. However, in Texas, I've read
that a surveyor can disturb or destroy a monument just by claiming the right to do so. Kind of like the law of eminent domain or something.
Some of you Texas surveyors might correct me on this, though.
Take care,
Ed
We generally don't remove monuments because we have public records of what they are but I can see it in the case of a lot line adjustment.
In fact I found a monument this week; I don't know yet if it's the original monument or the adjusted monument. They are about 80' apart. I've searched 80' north and 80' south and haven't found another monument; the original (now defunct corner) may have been removed by someone to reduce confusion which I don't necessarily disagree with. I prefer, as a Land Surveyor, to have all of the monuments so I know where they are without reference to a measurement but I can understand not wanting property owners to use the wrong monument causing a potential conflict.
(f) “Monument” means a marker that occupies the position of a corner and that possesses or is made to possess a magnetic field.
I think that Kent's argument may win out in this case.
RRain
If the Surveyor and two property owners go to the corner and the Surveyor points out the original and the offending piece of rebar shaped debris and all are agreed to pull the debris out of the ground I don't see any malicious intent.
On the other hand if a Surveyor flags up an old monument and then it disappears the next day and it can be proven the property owner who doesn't like the monument did it then that would probably be malicious.
But it's only a Misdemeanor so it's not like he's going to San Quentin for 20 years.
Several years ago the adjoining property owner pulled up a bunch of our traverse spikes which fortunately we didn't need anymore. But the wily old Sheriff's Deputy (professional colleague of the wily old Park Ranger) went to the offending parties house and noticed all of our spikes in the bed of his pickup. So the Sheriff's Deputy pointed out that if he compensated us for the cost of the damage there would probably be no need to do an arrest. The offending party agreed to pay. The PC 605 wasn't directly implemented but it was used as a threat.