The Old Land Lot Corner and the 2005 Rebar
While retracing a 42-acre tract in Land Lot 214 of the 16th District, 4th Section, you locate three corners of the 1820s land-lot grid along the south lot line. Corners A and B, at the ends of a two-lot span, are 1-inch iron pipes with no caps, each corroborated by a blazed and hacked pine witness tree and a rock pile within 2 ft. The record distance from A to B is 5,940.00 ft; your adjusted measurement between them is 5,938.20 ft. At the position of intermediate corner C you find a rusted 1-inch iron pipe and, 3.2 ft away, a 2-ft-high rock pile. Your measurement from A to the C pipe is 2,968.85 ft; the record distance from A to C is 2,970.00 ft. A 2005 survey by another firm set a capped rebar marked 'LL CORNER' 12.4 ft east of the pipe, and a chain-link fence built in 2006 runs through that rebar.
1. Corner C has two competing positions: the rusted 1-inch pipe with the rock pile, and the 2005 capped rebar 12.4 ft to the east. State which position you will hold and explain the hierarchy of evidence that gets you there.
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Hold the rusted 1-inch pipe at C.
The controlling hierarchy is: natural monuments, then original artificial monuments, then courses and distances, then area. The pipe at C is consistent in character, age and setting with the pipes at A and B, and it is corroborated by a rock pile of the kind the 1820s deputy surveyors used as a corner accessory. That combination makes it the best available evidence of where the original surveyor fixed the corner.
The 2005 rebar is a subsequent monument. It proves only where a 2005 surveyor concluded the corner was, and it carries no more weight than the 2005 surveyor's reasoning, which you cannot examine. It would control only if it perpetuated the original corner, for example where the 2005 crew recovered and then destroyed or buried the original pipe. Here the original pipe is still in the ground 12.4 ft away, so that theory is closed.
The 2006 fence is evidence of occupation, not of location. Roughly 19 years of use may be maturing into a prescriptive or acquiescence claim, but that is a question for a court; it never authorizes you to place the record line where the fence sits.
2. Run the proportionate-position check for corner C and state whether the pipe is corroborated. Show the arithmetic.
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Proportion the record distance along the measured line:
- Record A to C = 2,970.00 ft
- Record A to B = 5,940.00 ft
- Measured A to B = 5,938.20 ft
C(proportional) = 2,970.00 × (5,938.20 ÷ 5,940.00) = 2,970.00 × 0.999697 = 2,969.10 ft from A.
The found pipe is 2,968.85 ft from A. Difference = 2,969.10 − 2,968.85 = 0.25 ft, a relative disagreement of about 1:11,880 over the span.
Compare that with the naive check: 2,970.00 − 2,968.85 = 1.15 ft. Roughly 80 percent of that apparent error is simply the general shortening of the whole 1820s line, which the proportion absorbs. The residual 0.25 ft is smaller than the probable chaining error of the original survey plus your own measurement uncertainty.
Conclusion: the pipe is corroborated, not contradicted. A proportioned position is a fallback used only when a corner is truly lost; here the corner is not lost, so you hold the pipe and let the computed position serve only as a check.
3. Describe what you will show on the plat and what you will report to your client about the rebar, the fence, and the 12.4-ft strip.
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On the plat and in the notes:
- Show the pipe at C as the held corner, with a legend note such as 'found 1-inch iron pipe, accepted as original land lot corner,' plus ties or reference monuments if the pipe is endangered. Do not set a new monument on top of it.
- Show the 2005 capped rebar as a found monument set by others, with a note that it is not held and that it lies 12.4 ft easterly of the accepted corner. Never remove or disturb it.
- Show the fence as a found possession feature, dimensioned to the record line. Do not label it the boundary.
In a written report to the client, explain the 12.4-ft strip between the record line and the 2006 fence, and state plainly that you are reporting the facts, not deciding ownership. Because the fence has been in place since 2006, a claim of prescription or boundary by acquiescence may be developing under Georgia law (the prescriptive period is 20 years), but whether that claim succeeds is a legal question. Recommend that the client consult counsel, and note that if both owners want certainty, a written boundary line agreement or quitclaim is the clean tool.