Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
are held in their monumented location according to the layout of the street. Street
widths are not apportioned. In the above example the streets are 40 feet in width
and the surveyor would not decrease the width of the street. Apportionment is lim-
ited to the block contained within the street boundaries.
The apportionment rule would not be applied where it can be shown mathemati-
cally that one or more of the dimensions on the plan was obviously in error. In the
above example, the rear lot line of Lot 2 is shown as 110 feet not 100 feet. Angles
and distances on the plan show that the lots are intended to be rectangles 100 feet
wide by 200 feet deep. The dimension on the rear lot line of Lot 2 is clearly a typo-
graphical error. In this case the record dimension of 110 feet would be rejected and
100 feet would be used as the lot dimension (or 99 feet in the case of apportionment).
A minority of states have a rule called the
Remnant Rule
which places all of
the error into an irregular end lot if one exists. In the above example if lot 5 were
105.64 feet in width while lots one through four were all 100 feet in width, the
excess or deficiency would be applied only to Lot 5.
14.15 Boundary Agreements Between Abutters
We have looked at a number of factors which influence the location of boundaries.
In many cases, reconciling the record and physical evidence will be very difficult
and the surveyor will not be able to locate a boundary line on the ground with a high
degree of confidence. In other cases the boundary location established by the surveyor
will not be acceptable to one of the abutters. It was stated earlier that the only way to
fix boundaries definitely is by a court order or by agreements between abutters.
Because of the high cost of litigation it is almost always preferable to attempt
to enter into a boundary agreement with the abutter rather than to file a lawsuit.
In some cases abutters will be unable to negotiate a boundary location acceptable
to both parties and litigation is the only solution. Before entering into litigation
the parties should realize that a court order is binding and the resolution may be
one that will please neither party. This result will have been achieved only after
tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees have been expended and several years
have elapsed. In some cases stubbornness gets in the way of practical thinking and
negotiation becomes difficult or impossible. In reality, most law suits that are filed
end up being settled before trial. But even getting that far can still be very expen-
sive. It is usually in the best interests of the parties to make a serious attempt to
settle the issues before resorting to litigation.
If it appears that litigation is the only remedy, a party will need an attorney
experienced in boundary dispute resolution. Boundary dispute resolution is a
highly specialized area of the law. Although any attorney can take on the case, an
attorney not experienced in property matters will need to spend considerable time
getting up to speed on the substantive law which will certainly play a crucial role
in the case. An attorney experienced in the discipline is more likely to be familiar
with the applicable case law in the jurisdiction where the property sits.
