The Lost East Quarter Corner of Section 14
You are retracing Section 14, T4N, R2E, SBM. Your crew finds the 1856 GLO monuments at the SE and NE section corners in place, one carrying a legible scribed bearing-tree stub. The East 1/4 corner is gone. A 3/4-inch iron pipe with a 1979 surveyor's cap stands on line 40.28 chains from the SE corner; the 1979 map on file cites no surviving original evidence and carries no parenthetical distance. The 1856 plat records 40.00 chains from the SE corner to the E 1/4 corner and 40.00 chains onward to the NE corner. Your measured distance between the two surviving section corners is 80.62 chains. The adjoining owner has kept a wire fence 12 feet west of the pipe since 1981 and mows to it.
1. Fix the position of the East 1/4 corner. Show the computation and state the method.
Read the worked answer
The corner is lost: no original evidence remains and its position cannot be recovered from collateral evidence. The two surviving original section monuments are the controlling corners, so restore by single proportionate measure along the line joining them.
- Measured SE -> NE = 80.62 ch
- Record SE -> E 1/4 = 40.00 ch; record total = 80.00 ch
- (40.00 / 80.00) x 80.62 = 0.5000 x 80.62 = 40.31 ch from the SE corner
Set the monument at 40.31 ch on the true line between the recovered corners, bearing from the monument positions, not from the 1979 pipe. A proportionate distance is not a record distance: there is no 40.31-ch parenthetical to perpetuate, but the map should state the proportion used, the controlling corners relied on, and the resulting position.
2. What weight do you give the 1979 iron pipe and the 1981 fence? What must be reported about each?
Read the worked answer
The 1979 pipe is a monument of a subsequent survey, not evidence of the original corner. It cannot control the restoration unless it was set under a written boundary agreement, a court determination, or an established local usage - none of which appear here. It sits 0.03 ch (about 2.0 ft) from the restored position, which confirms the line but does not move it.
The fence is a line of occupation. Occupation does not relocate a record boundary; whether it ripened into title by adverse possession, or supports a boundary agreement, is a legal question for the owners and their counsel. Do not relocate the corner to the fence.
Report both: the pipe as 'found, 1979 cap, record unsupported, 0.03 ch from restored corner,' and the fence as a line of occupation 12 ft (0.18 ch) west, with the offsets shown and a note that no boundary agreement or adjudication was furnished.
3. Is a record of survey or corner record required, and what must it show?
Read the worked answer
Yes. You are establishing a corner by proportion and you have found discrepancies among the original monuments, a later surveyor's monument, the record plat, and occupation - each of which typically triggers a mandatory filing under the state survey recording act.
The map should show: the 1856 section monuments and their ties; the record distances; the measured distance; the proportion and the controlling corners; the restored corner and the monument set; the 1979 pipe with its own cap and position; the fence and offsets; and a note identifying which questions are legal rather than survey. Filing is a statutory duty owed to the public record and cannot be waived by the client, and copies go to the client and, where required, the county surveyor.