Boundary Determination and Evidence Evaluation
Where the boundary is
A retracement survey does not create a boundary; it locates the boundary already created by the original conveyance or survey. California follows the common-law hierarchy of evidence: natural monuments, artificial monuments, courses and distances, and lastly area or quantity. The deeper principle is seniority - the undisturbed monuments of the original survey are the best available evidence of the original surveyor's intent, and they control over record bearings and distances that conflict with them. Excess or deficiency is distributed proportionately only among parcels that come from the same original survey, and only when no controlling monument exists.
Traps
- Applying the rule that monuments control to any found monument. A later surveyor's pipe, or a monument not called for, is merely evidence; only original, called-for, or accepted monuments carry controlling weight.
- Treating area as controlling, or 'correcting' an original corner so the deed distance closes.
- Confusing boundary by agreement, practical location, acquiescence, and adverse possession. California adverse possession requires five years, payment of taxes, and other statutory elements; a boundary line agreement generally requires uncertain or disputed location plus the landowners' agreement.
- Ignoring unrecorded or uncalled-for evidence that explains why a monument sits off the record line.
Worked example
A deed reads 'thence N 00°00'00" E, 200.00 feet to a 2-inch iron pipe.' Fieldwork finds an undisturbed 2-inch pipe with an original bearing tree at 199.62 feet from the point of beginning. The pipe controls and the line is 199.62 feet long; the 0.38-foot deficiency is a fact of the original survey, not an error to be fixed.
Rule of thumb
Ask of every item of evidence: who created it, when, and was it called for? Original and undisturbed beats record; record beats nothing at all.