Fallin v. Cornelius

733 So. 2d 409, 1998 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 611, 1998 WL 515887
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Alabama
DecidedAugust 21, 1998
Docket2970877
StatusPublished

This text of 733 So. 2d 409 (Fallin v. Cornelius) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fallin v. Cornelius, 733 So. 2d 409, 1998 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 611, 1998 WL 515887 (Ala. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

THOMPSON, Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the Circuit Court of Blount County determining a boundary line between coterminous landowners. We affirm.

David Fallin and Teresa Fallin, a married couple, purchased approximately 61 acres of land on June 16, 1995. The Fal-lins had a boundary survey performed by R.C. Burgett (“the Burgett survey”) in connection with the purchase of the property. The adjoining landowners, Alvin J. Cornelius and his wife Mary Sue, own a parcel containing approximately 254 acres. The Corneliuses are both retired and do not reside on the property. A dispute arose over the boundaries between the two parcels when the Fallins attempted to erect a fence around their property.

Subsequently, the Corneliuses retained Frank Hollis to conduct a survey of their property (“the Hollis survey”). Thereafter the Corneliuses filed a complaint against the ■ Fallins, requesting the trial court to determine the true and correct boundary line between the parties’ property. Following ore tenus proceedings and his inspection of the subject property, Judge Robert Austin entered a final judgment containing the following eloquent rendition of the facts:

“Gather around as the tale of two families who are adjoining landowners is related. The Corneliuses, owners of 254 acres and the Fallins, owners of 61 acres, have fallen into controversy and strife over two strips of land. Despite all of the land which each possessed, neither family was able to bear the loss to the other of even the smallest parcel of their domain.
[410]*410“Controversy brewed as the Fallins began to erect a fence along their boundary line with the Corneliuses. Poet Robert Frost not-withstanding, this fence did not make good neighbors. The disputed prize, a sliver of earth seven feet in width along the north boundary line of the Corneliuses’ quarter-quarter and a pie shaped portion along the east boundary line of the same quarter-quarter, with dimensions of mere inches in width at the NE corner expanding to 27’ 4” at the SE corner. The aggregate for all of the disputed property is less than jé acre.
“Unable to agree like neighbors, or negotiate like enemies, the parties instead have resorted to the modern trial by ordeal of the land line dispute. Each has come to court armed with lawyers, duly qualified and registered land surveyors, maps and plats, eager and ready to do battle to protect their rights to property. In a process to be admired by alchemists of old they have, with the costs of lawyers’ fees, filing fees and deposition and discovery costs, converted the disputed acre from very rough, uncultivated and highly ordinary red clay earth, into what has become some of the most expensive real estate in Blount County.
“Enter two land surveyors. Their task, to establish the location on the ground of the north and east boundary lines of the Corneliuses’ property where it adjoins the Fallin property. The boundary lines to be located are not some vague or ambiguous ramblings of a mere common man made in an attempt to describe by ephemeral markers, land to be passed on to loved ones. There is no homemade description in these deeds the likes of ’27 paces to an old oak tree,’ or ‘proceeding in a northerly direction to the corner of Mr. Brown’s cornfield.’ No, the legal description to be interpreted into reality by the surveyors, and marked on the earth for all to see, is one so clear and so precise, that even the most cantankerous property law professor would approve: the north boundary line and the east boundary line of the SE % of the NW % of Section 4, Township 10 South, Range 2 East, Blount County, Alabama.
“We are here dealing with boundary lines that are established by the United States Government. Lines that are specific, sure and can be located with precision on maps issued by the United States Geological Survey. Lines that have been used since the beginning of this country to assure to one and all the certainty in the ownership of their farms and estates.
“But alas, the surveyors, both eminently qualified, both very experienced and both sure of their calls, their distances and their plats, are unable to agree on the location of the lines heretofore established by our government. Truly, nothing in this life is certain, save death and taxes. The surveyors’ inability to agree does, however, result in a new appreciation for the predicament of the landowners. For after all, if those who are licensed and registered in the measurement of land, with all of their skill, training, instruments and equipment, cannot agree on boundary lines, what hope is there for those of us who are mere mortals and who rely on the Stanley tape measure for distance and the eyeball for direction.
“This judge has heard the testimony of the parties, and that of the surveyors. He has examined the maps, the plats, and the photographs offered into evidence. He has, with the lawyers, viewed the disputed boundary area, now cleared by bulldozer, so that land, once overgrown and inaccessible, can now be fought over in the clear much as a demilitarized zone between warring countries.
“Were it not for rules of law which have been established by judges and lawmakers much wiser than this trial judge, that are steeped in a tradition of [411]*411disputes by neighbors over land since the beginning of courts and the judicial system, this judge would fare no better in the resolution of the dispute than the parties, surveyors, or lawyers. But in the evidence presented in Court and found from inspection of the premises are keys to the legal resolution of this dispute. The remnants of the old ‘turkey’ fence, also the northern boundary of the Cornelius property, and the complete absence of any evidence of possession by either party along the eastern boundary of the Cornelius property create strong presumptions to which the law may be applied.
“The law requires that where a fence has existed as a boundary for a period in excess of ten years between two coterminous owners, the fence becomes the boundary, regardless of the actual deed or survey line. In the absence of such physical evidence of possession, the line as called for in the deeds controls.
“The Court finds that based upon the remnants of the ‘turkey’ fence on the ground and embedded in the trees, that such fence existed for a period in excess of ten years, that the fence was intended as a boundary marker between the two adjoining property owners, and that the location of the fence coincides with the northern boundary line as drawn on the Burgett survey.
“The Court further finds that the old ‘turkey’ fence and Burgett survey line is the north boundary line of the Cornelius tract and the dividing line between the Corneliuses and the Fallins along that boundary line.
“The Court further finds, based upon the testimony and its inspection of the premises, no indicia of possession on the east boundary line; the quarter-quarter line as called for in the deeds is the boundary line. As to which survey to use in establishing the location of the east boundary line, the Court looks to three factors:
“1. The testimony of Frank Hollis, as to the prior existence of iron stobs or axles in the ground marking the corners of the east boundary line of the Cornelius property;
“2.

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Bluebook (online)
733 So. 2d 409, 1998 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 611, 1998 WL 515887, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fallin-v-cornelius-alacivapp-1998.