James Fleming, post: 330833, member: 136 wrote: Late to the party, and my 2 cents are state specific but...
Maryland, like many states, has codified certain elements of common law (such as quieting title) to insure that the accepted standardized procedures developed through case law decisions are followed. The requirements to obtain clear title by quiet title suit include (among other things) :
"...actual peaceable possession of property, or, if the property is vacant and unoccupied, in constructive and peaceable possession of it, either under color of title or claim of right by reason of his or his predecessor's adverse possession for the statutory period"
In this case, the only property that can be subject to the quiet title action brought by the southerly owner would be those that he is possessing either under color of title or adversely...the area between the red and black lines. Any description of the red outline, in toto, would be immaterial to the quiet title action, the area to which the plaintiff already has clean title is immaterial.
The standard practice here would be to have a surveyor write a description for the area between the red and black lines and that would be the description of the parcel where title is acquired by the quiet title action. The landowner than would have deeds to two separate parcels of land (since quiet title is a title rather than boundary doctrine the original boundaries remained fixed rather than reformed). If the southerly owner then wanted to develop or improve the property, he would have to go through the locally approved process for combining two parcels in the county or municipality where the property lies.
If the owner of the property to the north is occupying the green portion adversely (given that the black lines are surveyed and have known monuments, I doubt he has color of title through defect, but who knows) then he would have to bring his own action to acquire clean title to that area if he met the statutory requirements, or obtaining it by a separate agreement with the southerly owner, usually through an Addition Plat process. Quiet title is a procedure where the plaintiff acquires clean title at the expense of the defendant(s), I haven't' seen any mechanism in a court decision that would allow the plaintiff to surrender good title through the quiet title process. In fact the courts here have stated that title by adverse possession is not a defense in a boundary dispute, it is something that can only established when the adverse possessor is the plaintiff.
Well, if the action was by an adverse possessor of the fenced area, against one with a deed to the well monumented southern parcel, then the green area might be still owned by the loser in the AP case. But even in Maryland I don't think you could have a quiet title line going for and against yourself. For the result as shown, there had to be an opposing party on the north that won or lost to the fenceline.
I understand that agreements can be made to locate lost boundaries when the record fails, no monuments exist, nothing at all will restore any of the locations.
In the example shown, the record boundaries can be relocated and are shown by the black lines connecting original monuments that are in place and are in agreement.
For some reason an agreement was made to the red line where some fence is.
I still believe that an exchange of deeds would be necessary for for everyone to have ownership to the red lines because their existing deeds do not call for the agreed boundary......
That was the original question I read.....
