I'm doing some research for an article about slander-of-title. I often hear land surveyors being warned about claims of slander-of-title that arise from their work products. However, I've yet to find a court case where a land surveyor paid damages for slander of title, and I can only find one case where a land surveyor was even involved in an accusation of slander-of-title.
My legal research so far seems to indicate that a successful slander-of-title claim in most states requires some evil or malicious intent. That seems like a tough aspect of slander-of-title to prove against most surveyors.
Would you tell me about any examples you have about a surveyor being sued or threatened over a slander-of-title claim?
Any information you can provide would help a great deal. You can e-mail me at [email protected] if you want to talk off-forum.
Thanks.
Landon
I've heard the same things but know of no examples where this has actually happened. Please let us know your final summary. This should be interesting.
I did a small division for a farmer. He never paid. I leaned the prop. A year or more later he found some buyers. Opps, someone has to pay the surveyor. The sellers attorneys threatened slander of title. I just couldn't contain my laughing. I told them you know where to find me. The local process server that most everyone uses knows me well. Send the papers.
Landon-
A read of the cases here may assist:
http://www.canlii.org/en/#search/all=SURVEYOR%20slander%20of%20title
Cheers,
Derek
Article in American Surveyor
Here's an article in the latest issue of American Surveyor:
http://www.amerisurv.com/content/view/12509/153/
Article in American Surveyor
The late fence-line surveyor, Richard Schaut, used to mention slander of title in about every other post.
The examples I would be interested in won't show as court cases. Has anyone negotiated around this? If so do you have any lessons learned that you are free to share?
Although this won't help you, it is interesting in that it involves slander of title and a surveyor...
Don't know how the surveyor fared, but I seem to recall hearing about some threats of a slander of title suit about 20 years ago in rural North Florida.
In this case the surveyor -- without any proof whatsoever...just his suspicion of what the 1840 original surveyor did -- shifted some east-west section lines either a quarter-mile north or a quarter-mile south. The surveyor then went about "redescribing" his clients property. For example, if the (100 year plus) chain of title called for the Northeast 1/4 of the Southeast 1/4, he simply "renamed" it (for example) the Southeast 1/4 of the Northeast 1/4. Viola...problem solved. Well maybe not so fast. When the land owner went to visit the County Property Appraiser to get his land description changed for tax purposes, the Appraiser refused to comply. The Appraiser politely told the land owner that someone else owned that particular "40" (and had been owned by that one family since about 1890), and that he was not about to let two different people claim the same identical piece of land. For years the land owner(s) -- there was more than one affected land owner client of this surveyor -- went around the county cussing the Appraiser for not doing what the surveyor said.
Hope I didn't hijack your thread too much.
ibenhavin
There have been three cases in West Virginia that I know of. None of them reached the appellate level. The surveyors prevaled in each case. As a lawyer explained it to me, it's a hard case to prove. To win you have to prove intentional malice, an erroneous boundary, and the surveyor has to have personally recorded the plat. The act of recording is important.
I know one of the surveyors personally and he has told me that he will never record another plat. Even though he won, it is not an issue covered by E & O insurance. He had to foot his attorney's bill at a cost of several thousand dollars.
WV is not a recording state.