PS Boundary Law & Riparian Rights 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In the hierarchy of calls used to resolve conflicting boundary descriptions, which call type generally takes the LOWEST priority?
- Natural monuments
- Artificial monuments
- Adjoiners
- Area or quantity (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Area or quantity
The standard hierarchy places area/quantity last because it is a calculated result; monuments, lines, and courses take precedence over computed area.
Question 2: The doctrine of 'senior rights' in boundary law means that when two deeds conflict, the court will:
- Average the two descriptions to find a compromise
- Give priority to the description recorded most recently
- Give priority to the description executed (or recorded) first in time (Correct answer)
- Require a new survey to establish a fresh boundary
Correct answer: Give priority to the description executed (or recorded) first in time
Senior rights follow the principle that a grantor cannot convey more than they own, so the earlier conveyance controls over later (junior) conflicting grants.
Question 3: An original USPLSS corner monument is found in the field. A later survey placed a different monument nearby. Which controls?
- The later monument because it was set by a licensed surveyor
- The original GLO monument because original monuments control (Correct answer)
- The monument closest to the calculated position
- The monument agreed upon by adjacent landowners
Correct answer: The original GLO monument because original monuments control
Original GLO corner monuments, when found, are the legal corners regardless of their calculated position; all other monuments are subordinate.
Question 4: A survey description calls for a fence line as a boundary monument. The fence is later found to be 15 feet off from other controlling evidence. A surveyor should:
- Accept the fence as the boundary without further investigation
- Weigh the fence against all other evidence to determine the true boundary (Correct answer)
- Automatically discard the fence reference and use computed positions
- Require the parties to sign a boundary line agreement before proceeding
Correct answer: Weigh the fence against all other evidence to determine the true boundary
A fence referenced as a monument is evidence but must be weighed against all other evidence — monuments are not automatically superior if contradicted by stronger evidence.
Question 5: The legal concept of 'privity of estate' is relevant to adverse possession because it:
- Allows a surveyor to set a new corner without a court order
- Permits successive possessors to tack their periods of possession together (Correct answer)
- Requires that adverse use be exclusive to a single claimant
- Establishes the date a deed was first recorded
Correct answer: Permits successive possessors to tack their periods of possession together
Privity allows the time periods of successive adverse possessors to be combined (tacked) if each possessor transferred possession to the next in a connected chain.
Question 6: When a deed description and a plat map conflict, which generally controls under most state laws?
- The plat map always controls over a metes-and-bounds deed
- The deed always controls over the plat
- Courts weigh both documents to determine which was the original intent (Correct answer)
- The document recorded first in time controls
Correct answer: Courts weigh both documents to determine which was the original intent
When a deed and a referenced plat conflict, courts examine the full context of both instruments to determine the grantor's original intent, with no automatic hierarchy.
Question 7: A 'call for an adjoiner' in a deed description means the boundary is defined by:
- A physical monument set at the corner
- A line bearing and distance
- The boundary of a neighboring deed or tract (Correct answer)
- A natural feature such as a ridge or stream
Correct answer: The boundary of a neighboring deed or tract
A call for an adjoiner uses the boundary of an identified neighboring parcel as the controlling boundary, and that neighboring boundary takes precedence over conflicting course-and-distance calls.
PS Boundary Law & Riparian Rights 3
In the hierarchy of calls used to resolve conflicting boundary descriptions, which call type generally takes the LOWEST priority?