Book came in the mail today. I'm up to page 12, so far would rate it a very good book. Probably won't be able to put it down, expect to have it read within a week even though I've got a lot going these days (little time for reading).
I really enjoyed the historical write as to how we got to where we are as land surveyors and the crossroads land surveying is at. Actually, I've been on board with Lucas about 100% all along. Nice to see it all written and explained in a well thought out and researched manner.
I've been reading my copy for two days now. I'm in Chapter 6 - Monuments and Corners.
I can easily see this book taking up many more hours of my time (my horses just may become bigger Lucas fans than I am). 🙂
I've already (sorry to say) broken the spine copying sections for mark-ups.
Being only half way through (this may be premature, but I doubt it), I'd have to say this book should be required reading for all surveying students before being granted a license to survey property boundaries (and possibly before many existing license holders having their licenses re-newed).
Kudo's to Jeff.
Just got mine yesterday and all I read was the opening and case lists. Saving it for the weekend but im looking forward to reading it cover to cover probably a few times.
Found mine at our gate at the end of the driveway this morning as I was leaving for work. I haven't had a chance to read anything of it beyond the TOC and a quick flip through the pages. I look forward to getting into it this weekend.
I received the book as a gift from a young colleague this week.
I am in Chapter 3.
I have read some criticism about Lucas's style and maybe the title is a bit extreme. However I am finding the book to be very useful as a basic real property law for surveyors text. I think Lucas is on the right track and I find him very persuasive.
Not everything I thought before today was correct. When I started participating in RPLS about 10 years ago my training, experience and practice was very much in line with the prevailing belief system of the land surveying profession (read that as: Brown). I think Lucas started publishing his column in 2004. At first I thought, "Who is this guy? I've never read anything like it???" Whenever some boundary problem got posted another person known as J.B. Stahl (I had no idea who he was) would post these long, eloquent essays explaining the proper analysis of the facts and the law and the reason for the law. That is when my opinions started to change. Frankly a lot of the opinions I agreed with early on (including my own) were mostly "I was always taught..." or "My mentor told me..." and so on. Much of it was not based in real research into what the law really is and how the Courts really work. A lot of us were taught (me in a college boundary course no less) that certain problems should be referred to Attorneys with absolutely no recognition of the litigation hell that is potentially submitting a client to for no reason other than the Surveyor does not have the courage to do his duty.
Now I am reading Lucas because he is pretty much the only person I know of actually formally publishing works which constitute a manual on how to do what Cooley advised; that is whatever the Judge would do. Lucas says it isn't a mystery what the law is, there are many volumes full of published opinions which are intended for our use.
I realize there are other authors out there, some of them are attempting to revise old texts over time and may be behind on some things, particularly the expectation by modern Courts that experts will testify to the ultimate issue. Lucas seems to respect a few other authors, Wilson and Madson to name two.
I definitely recommend the book based on what I have read so far. Hopefully it will become a standard text over time.
