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NC Land Surveyor practice questions

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Question 1Legal Principles and Professional Practice

When the calls in a metes-and-bounds deed description conflict with one another, which call generally controls?

  1. A call for area
  2. A call for a natural monument Correct answer.
  3. A call for a course or bearing
  4. A call for distance

Explanation

The rules of construction rank evidence of location in a settled order: natural monuments outrank artificial monuments, which outrank courses and distances, which outrank quantity or area. A bearing or a distance yields to a well-identified monument called for in the deed.

Question 2Legal Principles and Professional Practice

Which requirement must a deed satisfy to be enforceable under the statute of frauds in North Carolina?

  1. It must be recorded within 30 days of delivery
  2. It must be in writing and signed by the grantor Correct answer.
  3. It must be acknowledged before a notary public
  4. It must be supported by valuable consideration

Explanation

The statute of frauds requires a writing signed by the party to be charged that identifies the land and the interest conveyed. Acknowledgment affects recordation, not validity, and a deed of gift is effective without consideration.

Question 3Legal Principles and Professional Practice

What is the general statutory period for acquiring title to land by adverse possession in North Carolina?

  1. 10 years
  2. 30 years
  3. 7 years
  4. 20 years Correct answer.

Explanation

North Carolina sets twenty years for adverse possession, requiring possession that is actual, open, notorious, exclusive, hostile, and continuous. The seven-year period is a separate doctrine available only with color of title and payment of taxes.

Question 4Legal Principles and Professional Practice

Before a deed may be recorded in the county Register of Deeds in North Carolina, it must be:

  1. approved by the board of county commissioners
  2. acknowledged before a notary public Correct answer.
  3. witnessed by two disinterested persons
  4. accompanied by a boundary survey

Explanation

Recording statutes require that a conveyance be acknowledged or proved before an officer authorized to take acknowledgments, such as a notary public, before the register will accept it. Approval, surveys, and attesting witnesses are not recording prerequisites.

Question 5Legal Principles and Professional Practice

Which body issues and regulates professional land surveyor licenses in North Carolina?

  1. The North Carolina Society of Surveyors
  2. The county board of commissioners
  3. The North Carolina Board of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors Correct answer.
  4. The North Carolina Department of Transportation

Explanation

The Board of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors administers licensure, examinations, and disciplinary proceedings for surveyors under the state licensing statute. The other bodies either are voluntary professional associations or have no licensing authority.

Question 6Legal Principles and Professional Practice

Aside from any recording statute, two deeds from the same grantor overlap and neither grantee had notice of the other. At common law, which grantee holds the overlapping strip?

  1. The grantee whose deed contains a warranty
  2. The senior grantee, whose deed was delivered first Correct answer.
  3. The grantee whose deed was recorded first
  4. The grantee who first takes physical possession

Explanation

Under the common-law priority rule, the first deed delivered is the senior conveyance and prevails over a later, junior deed from the same grantor. Recording statutes and notice can change that result, which is why the question sets the statute aside.

Question 7Legal Principles and Professional Practice

A quitclaim deed conveys:

  1. title free of all liens and encumbrances
  2. a general warranty of title
  3. whatever interest the grantor may have, without warranty Correct answer.
  4. no interest unless the grantor owns the land when the deed is recorded

Explanation

A quitclaim releases only the grantor's present interest, if any, and carries no covenants of title. Title passes on delivery whether or not the deed is ever recorded.

Question 8Legal Principles and Professional Practice

The primary legal purpose of recording a deed is to:

  1. establish the property's assessed value for taxation
  2. validate the transfer between grantor and grantee
  3. satisfy the statute of frauds
  4. give constructive notice of the conveyance to the world Correct answer.

Explanation

Recording places the conveyance in the public chain of title so that later purchasers and creditors are charged with notice of it. Validity between the parties is established by delivery, not by recording.

Question 9Legal Principles and Professional Practice

A landowner's possession of a tract is open and hostile, but the owner has no color of title and has paid no taxes. Which circumstance would allow the possessor to claim under the seven-year doctrine?

  1. Possession under color of title with taxes paid for seven years Correct answer.
  2. Seven years of occasional recreational use of the land
  3. Ten years of possession without any color of title
  4. Twenty years of open possession under color of title without paying taxes

Explanation

The seven-year doctrine in North Carolina requires both color of title and payment of taxes on the land for each of the seven years. Without color of title or tax payment, the claimant must rely on the twenty-year adverse possession period.

Question 10Legal Principles and Professional Practice

A river slowly deposits sediment along the bank of a landowner's tract over many years, adding two acres. The new land belongs to:

  1. the nearest upstream landowner
  2. the State, as owner of the bed of the river
  3. the riparian landowner, by accretion Correct answer.
  4. no one until a court awards it

Explanation

Accretion is the gradual and imperceptible addition of land by water action, and the added land belongs to the riparian owner. The State's ownership of navigable beds does not defeat the doctrine of accretion to the upland.

Question 11Legal Principles and Professional Practice

A single flood suddenly cuts a new channel, leaving five acres of a tract on the far side of the river. The boundary is:

  1. divided equally between the two owners
  2. fixed at the thread of the new channel
  3. moved to the new channel
  4. unchanged; avulsion does not move the boundary Correct answer.

Explanation

Avulsion is a sudden and perceptible change in a watercourse, and it does not alter property boundaries, which remain where the stream ran before the event. Only gradual accretion or erosion shifts a riparian boundary.

Question 12Legal Principles and Professional Practice

A conveys to B, who does not record. A then conveys the same land to C for value, and C records first without any knowledge of B. Under North Carolina's recording statute, title belongs to:

  1. C, because a later deed always prevails once recorded
  2. C, because North Carolina is a pure race recording state Correct answer.
  3. B, because B's deed is senior
  4. B, because C had no notice of B

Explanation

North Carolina protects the first purchaser for value to record, regardless of whether that purchaser had notice of an earlier unrecorded deed. Because the statute turns on the act of recording alone, the state is classed as a race jurisdiction.

Question 13Legal Principles and Professional Practice

An owner whose land borders a non-navigable stream is presumed to own:

  1. to the opposite bank of the stream
  2. only to the high-water mark
  3. only to the ordinary low-water mark
  4. to the thread (centerline) of the stream Correct answer.

Explanation

The common-law presumption for non-navigable streams is that the boundary is the thread of the stream, giving the riparian owner the bed to the centerline. A deed may expressly limit the conveyance to the bank, which rebuts the presumption.

Question 14Legal Principles and Professional Practice

An oral agreement between adjoining owners fixing a boundary they both considered uncertain is enforceable when:

  1. the agreement is acknowledged before a notary public
  2. it is reduced to writing and recorded within one year
  3. both parties are represented by attorneys
  4. the line was uncertain or disputed and the parties possessed to it Correct answer.

Explanation

A parol boundary agreement is an exception to the statute of frauds and is enforced when the location of the line was genuinely uncertain or disputed and the parties then occupied according to the agreed line. Possession or improvements are needed to show reliance on the agreement.

Question 15Legal Principles and Professional Practice

A common-law dedication of land to public use transfers:

  1. a lien in favor of the public
  2. an easement of public use, with fee title remaining in the dedicator Correct answer.
  3. fee simple title to the public body
  4. no right until a statute authorizes it

Explanation

Dedication at common law is the gift of an easement of public use, without the transfer of fee title, and requires an offer plus acceptance by the public. The fee remains in the dedicator, subject to the public easement.

Question 16Legal Principles and Professional Practice

Before a subdivision plat may be recorded in North Carolina, it must first be:

  1. reviewed by the register of deeds for mathematical accuracy
  2. approved by the county surveyor
  3. published in a newspaper of general circulation
  4. approved by the governing body under the local subdivision ordinance Correct answer.

Explanation

Subdivision approval is a local function: the plat must be approved by the governing body or its designee under the subdivision ordinance before the register of deeds will accept it. The register indexes and records instruments but does not approve them.

Question 17Legal Principles and Professional Practice

A plat of a boundary survey presented for recording must bear:

  1. a title opinion letter from an attorney
  2. the written approval of all adjoining property owners
  3. a notarized affidavit of the property owner
  4. the seal and signature of the professional land surveyor responsible for it Correct answer.

Explanation

Maps and plats that depict boundary surveys must carry the seal and signature of the licensed surveyor who performed or directed the work. The seal identifies the licensee accountable for the plat's content.

Question 18Legal Principles and Professional Practice

Which fee arrangement is generally prohibited by the rules of professional conduct applicable to land surveyors?

  1. A retainer billed against hourly work as it accrues
  2. A bonus contingent on a finding that favors the client Correct answer.
  3. A fixed fee quoted before the work begins
  4. An hourly rate for field work plus reimbursable expenses

Explanation

Compensation may not be contingent on the outcome of professional findings, because it creates an incentive to shape evidence or opinions toward the paying party's interest. Hourly, fixed, and retainer arrangements are ordinary and permissible.

Question 19Legal Principles and Professional Practice

In a negligence action, a professional land surveyor's conduct is measured against:

  1. the accuracy the client specified in the contract
  2. the care a reasonably prudent surveyor would exercise under similar circumstances Correct answer.
  3. the prevailing custom of local developers
  4. a guarantee of mathematical perfection

Explanation

A professional owes the standard of care exercised by a reasonably prudent member of the profession under similar circumstances, not a warranty of perfect results. Industry custom may be evidence of that standard but does not define it.

Question 20Legal Principles and Professional Practice

A surveyor who finds a monument at a property corner that is likely original should:

  1. remove it and set a modern marker in the same spot
  2. ignore it if it conflicts with the deed distance
  3. hold it as controlling evidence of the corner and preserve it Correct answer.
  4. replace it and note the change only in the field book

Explanation

An original monument is the best available evidence of the corner's location and, when the deed calls for it, controls over courses, distances, and area. A surveyor must preserve existing evidence and document it rather than destroy it.

Question 21Legal Principles and Professional Practice

A possesses land adversely for twelve years, then conveys her possessory interest to B, who occupies the land for nine more years. The twenty-year period is satisfied because:

  1. tacking is permitted between strangers who never dealt with one another
  2. successive adverse possessors may tack when their possession is connected by privity Correct answer.
  3. each period of possession starts a new limitations period
  4. a transfer of the possessory interest suspends the running of time

Explanation

Tacking allows a successor to add a predecessor's period of adverse possession when the two possessions are connected by privity, such as a conveyance or devise of the possessory interest. Strangers without a connecting relationship cannot pool their periods.

Question 22Legal Principles and Professional Practice

A deed describes the boundary as running 'to the bank of Mill Creek, thence with the creek to the maple.' The grantee owns:

  1. a prescriptive right to use the water of the creek
  2. the bed of the creek to its thread
  3. only to the bank, with no interest in the bed Correct answer.
  4. the entire creek bed to the far bank

Explanation

A call to the bank limits the conveyance to the water's edge and rebuts the usual presumption that a riparian grantee takes to the thread of a non-navigable stream. The word 'bank' is a monument that controls over the general presumption.

Question 23Legal Principles and Professional Practice

A deed calls for a marked stone at a corner. The stone is found twelve feet from where the deed distances place the corner, and witnesses testify a neighbor moved it there in 1980. The corner is:

  1. at a point halfway between the stone and the deed distance
  2. at the stone's present location, because monuments control
  3. at the stone's original location, proved by the best available evidence Correct answer.
  4. at the deed distance, because monuments yield to distance

Explanation

A monument displaced by a stranger loses its value as evidence at its new position, and the surveyor must reconstruct the original corner from the remaining evidence. The rule that monuments control applies only to undisturbed monuments occupying their original positions.

Question 24Legal Principles and Professional Practice

A licensed surveyor may sign and seal a plat that:

  1. was prepared under the surveyor's responsible charge and reviewed by the surveyor Correct answer.
  2. was produced entirely by a firm in another state the surveyor has never contacted
  3. was drafted by an unlicensed technician the surveyor never supervised
  4. copies an earlier survey by another firm without any field verification

Explanation

The seal signifies personal professional responsibility, which requires that the work be performed by the licensee or by subordinates under the licensee's responsible charge. Reviewing and directing the work is what allows the surveyor to seal the product.

Question 25Legal Principles and Professional Practice

A 1960 deed conveys Blackacre 'to the line of the adjoining Smith tract, thence with Smith's line.' Smith's line has since been resurveyed eight feet away from where it ran in 1960. The controlling line is:

  1. the line as it existed on the ground in 1960 Correct answer.
  2. a line drawn halfway between the two
  3. the line called for by the distances in the deed
  4. the line shown by the most recent resurvey

Explanation

A call for an adjoiner's line refers to that line as it actually existed when the deed was made, not as it may later be resurveyed. The grantee takes according to the then-existing monument the deed adopts, and later survey errors cannot enlarge or reduce the grant.

Question 26Legal Principles and Professional Practice

Under the North Carolina statute of frauds, which element is required for a valid conveyance of an interest in land?

  1. The grantee must accept the deed in a separate writing signed at the time of delivery.
  2. The deed must recite a dollar amount of consideration and the acreage of the tract.
  3. The deed must be in writing and signed by the grantor or an authorized agent. Correct answer.
  4. The deed must be acknowledged before a notary public and recorded within 30 days of its date.

Explanation

North Carolina's statute of frauds requires that a conveyance of an interest in land be in writing and signed by the party to be charged (the grantor or an authorized agent). Acknowledgment and recording affect provability and priority among purchasers, not the validity of the transfer between the parties.

Question 27Legal Principles and Professional Practice

An owner signs, acknowledges, and seals a deed to a friend but keeps it in a desk drawer and tells no one. After the owner dies the deed is found among the owner's papers. What does the deed accomplish?

  1. It passes title as of the date of death, because a signed but undelivered deed operates as a will.
  2. It passes title as of the date it was signed, because acknowledgment itself supplies delivery.
  3. It passes title as of the date the deed is discovered, because acknowledgment relates back to signing.
  4. It passes nothing, because the deed was never delivered with a present intent to convey. Correct answer.

Explanation

A deed is effective only when the grantor delivers it with a present intent that it operate immediately as a conveyance. Retention of the instrument by the grantor, with no words or conduct showing delivery, rebuts any presumption of delivery and leaves the deed inoperative.

Question 28Legal Principles and Professional Practice

In North Carolina, a use of another's land ripens into a prescriptive easement only when the use is:

  1. open and notorious for 10 years, with payment of all property taxes on the way.
  2. continuous for 7 years under color of title and enclosed by a substantial fence.
  3. adverse, continuous, open and notorious, and uninterrupted for 20 years. Correct answer.
  4. permissive in character but adverse to the interest of the general public.

Explanation

A prescriptive easement in North Carolina requires use that is adverse (not permissive), continuous, open and notorious, and uninterrupted for the 20-year prescriptive period. Payment of taxes is a requirement tied to certain adverse possession claims, not to prescriptive easements.

Question 29Legal Principles and Professional Practice

A grantor conveys 'to John Smith and his heirs, for the use of Smith personally, and not for the benefit of any land he owns.' Smith's interest is best described as:

  1. A fee simple determinable, because the grant states a possible ending event.
  2. An easement in gross, because it is not tied to a benefited parcel. Correct answer.
  3. An easement appurtenant, because it runs with Smith's land and passes to successors.
  4. A license, because no dominant tenement is benefited by the right.

Explanation

An easement appurtenant requires a dominant tenement that the right benefits, while an easement in gross benefits a person without regard to land ownership. Because the grant expressly disclaims benefit to any land Smith owns, the right is an easement in gross.

Question 30Legal Principles and Professional Practice

A landowner sells an interior parcel that has no access to any public road, retaining the surrounding land. The buyer's strongest claim to reach the road is:

  1. No easement at all, because the buyer purchased the parcel with notice of its landlocked condition.
  2. A prescriptive easement, provided the buyer uses the route openly and continuously for 20 years.
  3. An easement by necessity, because the parcel was severed from land with access. Correct answer.
  4. An easement by implication only if the deed expressly grants one.

Explanation

An easement by necessity arises when a parcel is severed from a grantor's land and the severed parcel has no access to a public way, the need existing at the time of severance. The right requires unity of ownership followed by severance plus strict necessity.

Question 31Legal Principles and Professional Practice

In a North Carolina general warranty deed, the covenant of quiet enjoyment:

  1. Guarantees that the grantor owns the land free of all liens and encumbrances of record.
  2. Is a present covenant that is breached, if at all, when the deed is delivered to the grantee.
  3. Protects the grantee only against defects created by the grantor and known to the grantor at closing.
  4. Is a future covenant breached only upon eviction by paramount title. Correct answer.

Explanation

General warranty deeds contain present covenants (seisin, right to convey, against encumbrances) and future covenants (quiet enjoyment, warranty, further assurances). Future covenants run with the land and are breached only when the grantee or a successor is evicted by paramount title.

Question 32Legal Principles and Professional Practice

A deed is recorded in the correct county registry, but the grantor's name appears nowhere in the recorded chain of title for the parcel. What effect does the recording generally have?

  1. It gives constructive notice to all later purchasers because the deed is available in the public records.
  2. It generally gives no constructive notice, because it lies outside the chain of title. Correct answer.
  3. It is void and conveys no interest at all, even between the grantor and the grantee.
  4. It gives constructive notice only to purchasers who search the grantor index under that name.

Explanation

A deed recorded outside the chain of title, often called a wild deed, is not constructive notice to later purchasers because a reasonable title search follows the recorded chain and does not extend to unrelated grantors. The deed remains valid between its own parties.

Question 33Legal Principles and Professional Practice

A scrivener copies an outdated description into a deed, omitting a five-acre strip, although both parties intended to convey the entire forty acres and agreed on that intent before closing. The grantee's proper remedy is:

  1. Reformation of the deed upon clear and convincing evidence of mutual mistake. Correct answer.
  2. Nothing, because a recorded deed cannot be changed after it has been recorded.
  3. Rescission of the deed as a matter of right, without any proof of mistake by either party.
  4. An order quieting title based solely on the grantee's testimony about the parties' intent.

Explanation

Reformation corrects a written instrument that fails to express the parties' actual agreement because of a mutual mistake or a scrivener's error. The party seeking reformation must prove the mistake and the true agreement by clear, cogent, and convincing evidence.

Question 34Legal Principles and Professional Practice

Ann owns Lot 1, which holds an easement over Lot 2. Ann then purchases Lot 2 in fee, so she owns both the dominant and the servient estates. What happens to the easement?

  1. It is extinguished by merger of ownership of the dominant and servient estates. Correct answer.
  2. It is suspended while Ann owns both lots and revives automatically when Ann sells Lot 2.
  3. It continues in force because it is appurtenant to Lot 1 and passes with that lot.
  4. It becomes a prescriptive right that runs with Lot 2 in favor of any later owner.

Explanation

When a single owner holds both the dominant and servient estates in fee, the easement merges into the ownership and is extinguished. It does not revive automatically on a later severance; a new grant or reservation would be required.

Question 35Legal Principles and Professional Practice

A state agency condemns a strip of a farm for a highway. Under North Carolina law, just compensation is measured by:

  1. Fair market value of the part taken plus the decrease in value of the remainder. Correct answer.
  2. The assessed tax value of the whole tract as shown on the county tax records.
  3. The original purchase price of the entire tract, adjusted upward for inflation since purchase.
  4. The value of the land taken, considered alone, without regard to the effect on the remainder.

Explanation

North Carolina follows the before-and-after rule: the landowner recovers the fair market value of the part taken plus the diminution in value of the remaining land caused by the taking. Special benefits to the remainder may offset that damage.

Question 36Legal Principles and Professional Practice

Under the North Carolina Marketable Title Act, a person who can trace a recorded chain of title to the land for at least how many years is protected from most older interests, subject to the Act's exceptions?

  1. 30 years Correct answer.
  2. 10 years
  3. 20 years
  4. 7 years

Explanation

The Marketable Title Act extinguishes interests older than the statutory root of title period, which in North Carolina is 30 years. The Act lists exceptions, such as governmental interests and certain utility easements, that are not extinguished.

Question 37Legal Principles and Professional Practice

O signs a warranty deed purporting to convey Blackacre to A before O owns any interest in Blackacre. O later acquires full title from the true owner. What is the result under estoppel by deed?

  1. Title passes automatically to A when O later acquires it. Correct answer.
  2. A receives a life estate only, until O reconveys the fee.
  3. Title stays with O, because O had nothing to convey when the deed was delivered.
  4. The deed is void and A must obtain a new conveyance from O.

Explanation

Under the doctrine of estoppel by deed, a grantor who conveys by warranty deed land the grantor does not yet own is estopped to deny title, and the after-acquired title passes automatically to the grantee. A quitclaim conveyance, by contrast, generally carries no such estoppel.

Question 38Legal Principles and Professional Practice

Three siblings inherit a farm as tenants in common. Without consulting the others, one sibling executes a warranty deed purporting to convey the entire farm to a purchaser. That conveyance:

  1. Conveys the entire fee, because possession by one cotenant is treated as possession for all of them.
  2. Conveys a one-third interest measured by the life of the grantor, with the balance to the other cotenants.
  3. Is void as to all parties, because a cotenant has no power to convey any interest in the common property.
  4. Conveys only the signing cotenant's undivided one-third interest; the other shares are unaffected. Correct answer.

Explanation

Each tenant in common holds a separate, freely transferable undivided share and may convey only that share. A deed that purports to convey the whole conveys the grantor's fractional interest, leaving the non-joining cotenants' shares untouched unless they ratify.

Question 39Legal Principles and Professional Practice

A deed describes the parcel as 'Lot 7 of Ridgewood Subdivision as shown on the plat recorded in Plat Book 3, Page 12.' Two different plats at that citation designate a Lot 7, and neither the deed nor the surrounding circumstances points clearly to one. A court will most likely:

  1. Admit extrinsic evidence to resolve the latent ambiguity and identify the intended lot. Correct answer.
  2. Hold the deed void, because the description is ambiguous on its face.
  3. Enforce the description as written and disregard the second plat as irrelevant.
  4. Reform the deed to whichever lot has the greater area, under the doctrine of practical location.

Explanation

The description is complete on its face but becomes uncertain when applied to the facts, which is a latent ambiguity. Extrinsic evidence is admissible to identify the parcel the parties actually intended; only a patent ambiguity apparent on the face of the instrument raises barriers to parol evidence.

Question 40Legal Principles and Professional Practice

With an owner's oral permission, a neighbor pays for and builds a paved driveway across the owner's land, relying on the owner's assurance that the driveway may remain. The owner later revokes the permission. The neighbor's strongest argument is:

  1. The license became irrevocable because the neighbor materially changed position in reliance on it. Correct answer.
  2. The oral permission ripened into an easement by prescription as soon as the driveway was paved.
  3. The permission is void under the statute of frauds, so the owner must reimburse the cost of the driveway.
  4. The license is a covenant running with the land that binds all later owners of the servient parcel.

Explanation

A license is normally revocable at will, but it becomes irrevocable, often treated as an equitable easement, when the licensee makes substantial expenditures in reliance on the permission. The reliance interest is what equity protects, not the oral permission alone.

Question 41Boundary and Cadastral Surveying

In a deed description, when a call for a natural monument conflicts with a stated distance, which call generally controls?

  1. The natural monument Correct answer.
  2. The magnetic bearing
  3. The stated distance
  4. The stated area

Explanation

Courts apply a hierarchy of calls in which natural monuments are the strongest evidence of the parties' intent. Courses, distances, and area yield to monuments because monuments are less likely to contain transcription errors.

Question 42Boundary and Cadastral Surveying

How many acres are contained in a standard section of the Public Land Survey System?

  1. 160
  2. 320
  3. 1,280
  4. 640 Correct answer.

Explanation

A standard section is one square mile, and one square mile equals 640 acres. Quarter sections and half sections are subdivisions of that 640-acre unit.

Question 43Boundary and Cadastral Surveying

When a stream boundary shifts gradually by accretion, the boundary generally:

  1. Remains fixed at the original meander line forever
  2. Moves only after a new deed is recorded
  3. Stays at the thread of the original channel
  4. Moves with the gradual shift of the water Correct answer.

Explanation

Gradual accretion changes the water boundary over time, and the riparian owner's boundary moves with the water. A sudden avulsive change, by contrast, does not move the boundary.

Question 44Boundary and Cadastral Surveying

Which of the following is classified as a natural monument in boundary surveying?

  1. A concrete monument
  2. A set iron pin
  3. A bearing tree Correct answer.
  4. A recorded bearing

Explanation

Natural monuments are objects of nature such as trees, streams, and rock outcrops. Iron pins and concrete monuments are artificial monuments, and bearings are course calls.

Question 45Boundary and Cadastral Surveying

Which combination of elements is required for title by adverse possession?

  1. Payment of taxes, a survey, and a recorded deed
  2. Open, notorious, hostile, exclusive, and continuous possession Correct answer.
  3. Permission from the owner and periodic inspection
  4. Continuous possession for any length of time regardless of notice

Explanation

Adverse possession requires possession that is open, notorious, hostile, exclusive, and continuous for the statutory period. The possession must also satisfy any additional statutory requirements, but those five elements are the common-law core.

Question 46Boundary and Cadastral Surveying

A quarter-quarter section in the Public Land Survey System contains approximately how many acres?

  1. 20
  2. 80
  3. 10
  4. 40 Correct answer.

Explanation

A quarter-quarter section is one-sixteenth of a 640-acre section, which equals 40 acres. It is commonly described as a 40-acre tract.

Question 47Boundary and Cadastral Surveying

When two deeds overlap and one is senior in time, the senior conveyance generally:

  1. Prevails over the junior conveyance Correct answer.
  2. Controls only if the senior deed is unrecorded
  3. Loses priority if the junior deed is recorded first
  4. Has no effect on the overlapping area

Explanation

Under the priority rules for overlapping conveyances, the earlier conveyance is senior and generally prevails to the extent of the overlap. Recording statutes can affect priority against later purchasers, but the baseline rule favors the senior grantee.

Question 48Boundary and Cadastral Surveying

A meander line along a navigable river is ordinarily established to:

  1. Replace the ordinary high water mark
  2. Compute the area of the fractional lot Correct answer.
  3. Fix the legal boundary at the water's edge
  4. Set the limits of riparian rights

Explanation

A meander line is run to determine the area of the fractional lot and to show the general course of the water. It is not ordinarily the legal boundary; the water itself or the ordinary high water mark may control.

Question 49Boundary and Cadastral Surveying

A deed calls for a marked oak corner, but the oak has been cut and only a blazed stump remains. In retracing the boundary, the surveyor should generally:

  1. Run due north from the last recorded distance
  2. Use the stump as evidence of the corner Correct answer.
  3. Set a new corner at the deed's acreage center
  4. Ignore the stump and rely only on the distance

Explanation

Retracement seeks to recover the original survey, and a blazed stump can be evidence of the original oak monument. Physical evidence of the original corner is generally stronger than a distance call.

Question 50Boundary and Cadastral Surveying

Under the Public Land Survey System, a lost corner between two existing original corners is ordinarily reestablished by:

  1. Reestablishing it at the nearest section-line intersection
  2. Proportioning record distances between existing corners Correct answer.
  3. Setting it at the computed average of all record distances
  4. Using the acreage shown on the patent

Explanation

A lost corner has no surviving evidence of its original location, so it is reestablished by proportionate measurement between the nearest existing original corners on the same line. This preserves the original scheme of the survey as closely as possible.