Legal Principles and Boundary Surveying
Legal Principles and Boundary Surveying
The PS exam uses legal principles to test whether you can resolve boundaries defensibly, not just measure them. Questions hinge on property law, deed interpretation, the PLSS, easements, and unwritten rights. You must know which evidence controls when sources conflict and how to document a boundary determination.
Evidence hierarchy
Retracement surveys follow a hierarchy: undisturbed original monuments control over courses, distances, and areas; natural monuments control over artificial monuments; artificial monuments control over courses and distances; distances control over area. A found original pin with bearing-tree evidence outranks a deed distance even if the distance differs. Do not "correct" a monument to a deed call.
Easements and unwritten rights
An easement appurtenant benefits a dominant parcel; an easement in gross benefits a person or entity. A prescriptive easement requires open, notorious, adverse, continuous use for the statutory period; it does not require exclusivity. Adverse possession adds actual, exclusive, hostile possession under claim of right. Senior rights prevail when two deeds conflict.
PLSS
Township numbering begins at the northeast corner of Section 1 and proceeds west, then east in alternating rows to Section 36 in the southeast. Fractional lots arise along north and west boundaries. Correction lines absorb error.
Worked example
A deed calls for an iron pin 250.00 ft from a corner. You find an original iron pin with a bearing tree at 248.30 ft and no evidence of disturbance. Hold the pin. The original monument is the best evidence of the original survey; the 1.70-ft difference reflects deed error or later measurement error, not a reason to move the boundary.
Traps
- Treating deed distances as superior to found original monuments.
- Confusing prescriptive easement (use) with adverse possession (possession).
- Assuming an easement conveys ownership.
- Misnumbering PLSS sections or ignoring senior rights.
- Applying water-boundary rules without checking accretion vs. avulsion.