The Iron Pipe That Disagrees With the Deed
A 1925 subdivision map created Block 4, Lots 1-14, each shown as 50.00 ft wide on the north side of Elm Street. You are retracing Lot 12 for a buyer. The deed reads: "...thence N 0 degrees 15 minutes E, 150.00 ft to a 1-inch iron pipe; thence..." You find an undisturbed 1-inch iron pipe at 152.8 ft from the south line, on a bearing of N 0 degrees 09 minutes E, with no sign of resetting. You also find a redwood post remnant at 149.4 ft, and a 1962 wood fence at 149.9 ft that has clearly been maintained by the neighbor. Re-observing the block, the four original block-corner monuments measure 700.62 ft apart against 700.00 ft on the map. The buyer's lender wants the north line set at the deed distance of 150.00 ft so the lot "matches the record."
1. Which evidence controls the north line of Lot 12, and how do you justify holding it to the lender?
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A called-for monument controls over courses and distances. The deed calls for a 1-inch iron pipe, and one is found undisturbed at the position the deed's line reaches. Before accepting it, run the identification tests:
- Is it original? Undisturbed, no resetting evidence, correct type and size, and - critically - consistent with the 1925 map geometry relative to the other corners.
- Does it fit the block? The block measures 0.62 ft long overall. If Lot 12's pipe participates in an original, internally consistent set of corners, it is the subdivider's monument and its position is the line.
If the pipe passes those tests, the 150.00 ft call is simply an erroneous record distance, and the ~2.8 ft of extra depth is not a windfall to be split - it is where the pipe says the line is. The deed distance yields to the monument; the monument does not yield to the deed distance.
The redwood post at 149.4 ft is not called for. It is at best a random point - a construction stake or an old occupation marker - and carries no record standing. It is worth noting as evidence of where someone once thought the line ran, but it does not control.
The fence is occupation, not boundary. Long maintenance alone does not move a deed line. It matters only if the elements of adverse possession, boundary by agreement, or practical location can be shown - and those are legal conclusions for the client's attorney, not calls you make in the field. Show the fence, label it as a fence, and say nothing about ownership.
Tell the lender plainly: the deed's 150.00 ft is a record number, the pipe is the monument, and a survey that ignores a found monument to satisfy a loan file is a survey that will not survive scrutiny.
2. How do you handle the 0.62 ft of excess across the block, and does any of it belong to Lot 12?
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Two competing rules are in play; the order you apply them determines the answer.
Proportionate measure applies to the block, not automatically to each lot. Lots conveyed by reference to a map are presumed to have been laid out as a coherent whole, so a block that measures long is generally shared among the lots fronting that block in proportion to their record frontage, not dumped into whichever lot happens to be first or last in your chain. Over 14 lots, 0.62 ft is about 0.044 ft per lot - physically meaningless at the level of 1925 monumentation, but it must be accounted for rather than hidden.
But an original monument in position fixes its own corner. If Lot 12's pipe is original and internally consistent with the other original corners, Lot 12's north line is where the pipe is. The 0.62 ft is then absorbed among the lots whose corners are not monumented, because those are the calls with no monument of their own to hold.
Practical sequence: re-observe and hold all four block corners; identify which interior corners have original monuments; hold the monumented corners as found; apportion only the residual among the unmounted positions. Document what you held, what you prorated, and why.
If a subsequent lot cannot absorb its share without becoming absurd or conflicting with a better monument, say so in the map notes rather than forcing a number.
3. Do you file a Record of Survey, and what must it show and not show?
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Yes - the triggers are present. California practice (Business and Professions Code section 8762) requires a Record of Survey when a survey discloses a material discrepancy between the record and the measured position of a line or monument, when monuments are found that differ from record, or when you establish a line that is not of record. A monument found 2.8 ft off the deed distance in a 50-ft-wide lot is material by any reasonable standard.
The map should show:
- Basis of bearings, stated explicitly.
- All monuments found, with size, type, and condition, and whether accepted or rejected.
- Monuments set, if any, with ties.
- The record deed lines and distances and your measured positions, so the discrepancy is visible on its face.
- The fence and the redwood post, labeled as physical features of unknown or non-record status, not as boundary evidence.
- The block-corner geometry and a note on how you treated the excess.
- A note that the map does not resolve title or ownership of the strip between the record line and the fence.
What it must not do: label the fence as the boundary line, state or imply that the neighbor does or does not own the strip, or quietly drop the record distance so the map appears to "close" with the deed.
Also advise the buyer in writing that the pipe governs the described line, that the fence and the strip are a title question requiring legal review, and that adverse possession in California carries statutory requirements (including payment of taxes) that a survey cannot establish.