Calculations - Practical Boundary Surveying - page 216

Fig. 14.8 Possible shapes holding angles
possibilities. The linear dimensions in the deed are held for all of the property lines.
From left to right, each of the 4 parcels places the 90° dimension in one of the corners
beginning with the southwest corner and ending at the southeast corner.
Although we have substantially narrowed our possibilities, we are still no closer
to being able to locate the boundaries of the parcel on the ground because we have
no reasonable basis for choosing one of the configurations over the other three.
Some might argue that the point of beginning should take precedence so that the
final line should return to the point of beginning even if this means discarding the
length and angle of the line. For example, in this case we would start at the point
of beginning and use record angles and distances until we arrived at the northwest
corner of the parcel. We would then just draw a line from that point to the point of
beginning. There is case law to suggest that an error of closure should be placed
in the last course. There is also case law which holds that the point of beginning
should not have any greater importance than any other point. In the case at hand,
we are not dealing with a typical error of closure which, as we have already dis-
cussed, would only amount to a few hundredths of a foot. Here we have an error of
two feet, which seems much more like a blunder or omission than a measurement
error. A blunder is a large error such as misreading a tape, misplacing a decimal
point, transposing two numbers or some other gross, and sometimes obvious, error.
An additional interpretation would be to consider the deed elements as a whole
in light of the intentions of the parties to the conveyance. Because the original
description calls for a rectangle, it seems clear that the grantor intended to convey
a rectangle. Unfortunately, this reasoning only puts us back where we started—
requiring us to decide whether to hold 78 or 80 feet. However, this approach
would at least have the benefit of allowing us to abandon the other theories which
create skewed parcels. Clearly, if the grantor intended to convey a rectangle, we
would not be honoring her intentions by creating some sort of skewed figure. We
need to ask ourselves if there is any other information in the deed which might
help to support our rectangle theory and if so, what dimensions we should hold.
Our deed description gives an area of 8,000 square feet. Recall that area is one of
the last deed elements that should be considered as controlling. We already know that
one of the reasons that area is last is because of its historical unreliability. Before com-
puters were commonly available, calculating the area of irregularly shaped parcels was
difficult and time consuming so areas tended to not be particularly reliable. As such,