LSIT Legal and Ethical Issues 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A licensed surveyor discovers that a neighboring surveyor's recent boundary survey contains a significant mathematical error. What is the ethical obligation under NSPS and most state codes?
- Ignore it to avoid professional conflict
- Report the error to the client and, if necessary, the state licensing board (Correct answer)
- Correct the error privately without notifying anyone
- Contact the other surveyor's client directly and offer to redo the work
Correct answer: Report the error to the client and, if necessary, the state licensing board
Professional codes require surveyors to protect the public interest, which includes reporting known errors that could cause harm to clients or the public.
Question 2: Under the Statute of Frauds, which of the following documents MUST be in writing to be legally enforceable in a real property conveyance?
- An oral agreement to sell land made between family members
- A deed transferring fee simple title (Correct answer)
- A verbal license to cross a neighbor's property
- A handshake agreement for a short-term lease under one year
Correct answer: A deed transferring fee simple title
The Statute of Frauds requires that transfers of real property interests, including deeds, be in writing and signed to be enforceable.
Question 3: A surveyor is asked to stake a property line that he knows will encroach on a public easement. The client insists the work proceed. What should the surveyor do?
- Proceed because the client's instruction overrides professional judgment
- Refuse to perform work that violates applicable laws or regulations (Correct answer)
- Complete the survey but omit the easement from the plat
- Stake the line and let the client deal with any legal consequences
Correct answer: Refuse to perform work that violates applicable laws or regulations
Surveyors are ethically and legally prohibited from performing work that knowingly violates laws, regulations, or encumbers public rights.
Question 4: What legal doctrine holds that a long-term, open, notorious, hostile, and continuous use of another's land for a specific purpose can create a legal right to continue that use?
- Adverse possession
- Prescriptive easement (Correct answer)
- Easement by necessity
- Easement by implication
Correct answer: Prescriptive easement
A prescriptive easement grants the right of use (not ownership) after meeting the required elements of open, notorious, hostile, and continuous use for the statutory period.
Question 5: In most U.S. states, a surveyor's signed and sealed plat constitutes which type of professional output?
- An informal advisory opinion with no legal standing
- A legal document that can be recorded in public land records (Correct answer)
- A preliminary sketch subject to client modification
- A confidential report protected by attorney-client privilege
Correct answer: A legal document that can be recorded in public land records
A signed and sealed survey plat is a legal document that may be recorded in the public land records and carries the full professional responsibility of the surveyor.
Question 6: A surveyor accepts a project but later realizes the scope exceeds his current competence in a specialized area. What is the ethically correct course of action?
- Complete the work anyway to avoid disappointing the client
- Withdraw from the project or associate with a competent specialist (Correct answer)
- Subcontract the entire project without the client's knowledge
- Request that the client lower the project standards
Correct answer: Withdraw from the project or associate with a competent specialist
Ethical codes require surveyors to practice only within their areas of competence, and to disclose limitations or bring in qualified assistance when needed.
Question 7: Which type of property description is considered the weakest and most prone to causing boundary disputes?
- Metes and bounds description
- Lot and block (recorded plat) description
- Government rectangular survey description
- Strip or acreage description with no monuments or bearings (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Strip or acreage description with no monuments or bearings
Descriptions that lack monuments, bearings, or distances and rely solely on acreage or informal strip references are legally weak and highly prone to boundary disputes.
LSIT Legal and Ethical Issues 2
A licensed surveyor discovers that a neighboring surveyor's recent boundary survey contains a significant mathematical error.
What is the ethical obligation under NSPS and most state codes?