Understanding Legal Descriptions and the Public Land Survey System for the GIS Environment

1. Understanding Legal Descriptions and the Public Land Survey System for the GIS Environment IGIC – March 7, 2006

2. Issues in GIS Parcel Conversions Sufficiency of a description Various types of legal descriptions Uncertainties in boundary surveying The US Public Land Survey Understanding the “Intent” of a legal description What “controls” the lines and corners of a legal description Various terms Curves Water Boundaries

3. “Sufficiency” A description is considered legally sufficient if a competent surveyor can locate it on the ground

4. Types of Property Descriptions Metes and Bounds

5. Types of Property Descriptions Bounds

6. Types of Property Descriptions Aliquot Part

7. Types of Property Descriptions Lot/Block/Subdivision

8. Types of Property Descriptions Strip Descriptions

9. Types of Property Descriptions Area Descriptions

10. Types of Property Descriptions Quasi Metes and Bounds Division Line Proportional Parts Linear

11. “Why can’t two Surveyors ever agree??”

12. There are pre-existing conditions and unavoidable circumstances that Surveyors must deal with on every survey…

13. Uncertainties occur as a result of • Reference Monumentation • Record Documents • Possession/Occupation • Measurements ?

14. Reference Monumentation • Uncertain reference monuments • Conflicting reference monuments • Indeterminate reference • monuments

15. Public Land Surveys • When were your original surveys? • Tiffin’s Instructions – 1816 • Instructions – 1833, 1850, 1855, 1871, 1881, 1890, 1894, 1902, 1930, 1947, 1973 • What were your original • monuments? • Wood Posts, Stones, mounds, etc. • Closing Corners

16. Section Corners • Subdivision of Sections • Perpetuation of original corners – • when and with what monuments?

17. Section Corners An Existent Corner is one whose position can be identified by verifying the evidence of the monument, or its accessories, by reference to the description that is contained in the field notes, or where the point can be located by acceptable supplemental survey record, some physical evidence or testimony. Existent corners cannot be disturbed or moved.

18. Section Corners An Obliterated Corner is one at whose point there are no remaining traces of the monument, or its accessories, but whose location has been perpetuated, or the point for which may be recovered beyond reasonable doubt, by the acts and testimony of the interested landowners, competent surveyors, or other qualified local authorities, or witnesses, or by some acceptable record evidence.

19. Section Corners A Lost Corner is a point of a survey whose position cannot be determined, beyond reasonable doubt, either from traces of the original marks or from acceptable evidence or testimony that bears upon the original position, and whose location can be restored only by reference to one or more interdependent corners.

20. Section Corners Out of those original corners (e.g. 100,000 in Indiana), how many are existent (i.e. properly perpetuated and referenced)? 15-20%? How many of those have state plane coordinates associated with their locations? 30% (5% of the total)?

21. Uncertainty due to Record Documents • Deeds that do not Close • Plats or Deeds with Errors • Deed gaps and overlaps with • adjoiners

22. Uncertainty due to Occupation and Possession • Fences in conflict with record lines • Potential encroachments • Other evidence of possession

23. Uncertainty in Survey Measurements • Angle Measurements • Distance Measurements • GPS

24. Uncertainty in Survey Measurements Is the only uncertainty that the surveyor has any control over Yet – it cannot be eliminated

25. 4 Types of Uncertainties The first 3 involve evidentiary issues How does the Surveyor interpret the evidence and where does he/she want to place the corners?

26. 4 Types of Uncertainties The last - uncertainty in measurements - has to do with how accurately the Surveyor can mark and describe those locations

27. Determining what will Control References, ties, and controlling calls used in a description will typically control over the mathematics if a conflict between calls arises

28. Determining what will Control Unwritten Rights e.g. Adverse Possession, Acquiescence, Estoppel, oral agreement, etc.

29. Determining what will Control Unwritten Rights Senior Rights i.e. you can’t sell what you don’t own

30. Determining what will Control Unwritten Rights Senior Rights Written Intentions of the Parties

31. The “intent of the parties ” in a conveyance (usually the grantor, often together with a surveyor, sometimes with the grantee) is paramount to all other considerations

32. “No evidence shall be used to interpret a written instrument of conveyance other than the contents of the instrument except:”

33. “No evidence shall be used to interpret a written instrument of conveyance other than the contents of the instrument except:” To explain an extrinsic ambiguity

34. An “Extrinsic Ambiguity ” is an ambiguity in the legal description that requires the application of evidence from outside the written document to:

35. Explain the meaning of words existing within a written conveyance

36. Explain conditions existing as to the date of the deed

37. Understanding Intent “Where the description in a deed is not ambiguous, but certain and complete, there is no occasion to resort to extrinsic evidence to ascertain the intent of the parties as to the land intended to be conveyed.” Ault v. Clark (1916) 112 N.E. 843

38. Understanding Intent “The grantor’s intention controls, and the question for the court is not what the parties meant to say, but what they meant by what they did say .” Pointer v. Lucas (1960) 131 Ind.App. 10, 169 N.E.2nd 196

39. Determining what will Control Unwritten Rights Senior Rights Written Intentions of the Parties Call for a Survey

40. A call for a survey is a call for the monuments set on that survey

41. Determining what will Control Unwritten Rights Senior Rights Written Intentions of the Parties Call for a Survey Call for a Monument

42. Determining what will Control Unwritten Rights Senior Rights Written Intentions of the Parties Call for a Survey Call for a Monument Natural, Artificial, Record

43. Determining what will Control Unwritten Rights Senior Rights Written Intentions of the Parties Call for a Survey Call for a Monument Natural, Artificial, Record Distance and/or Direction

44. Determining what will Control Unwritten Rights Senior Rights Written Intentions of the Parties Call for a Survey Call for a Monument Natural, Artificial, Record Distance and/or Direction Area

45. Calls for area will control only when that area represents the clear intentions of the parties or when there is no better evidence

46. Determining what will Control Unwritten Rights Senior Rights Written Intentions of the Parties Call for a Survey Call for a Monument Natural, Artificial, Record Distance and/or Direction Area Coordinates

47. Coordinates have historically been last because they are a function of directions and distances

48. When a description references a record line or a monument, those calls control and must be identified and located;

49. When a description references a record line or a monument, those calls control and must be identified and located; the rest of the property must then be fit to them

50. When a description references a record line or a monument, those calls control and must be identified and located; the rest of the property must then be fit to them The mathematics (i.e. bearings and distances) will often NOT control intent