Limbaugh v. Comer

90 So. 2d 246, 265 Ala. 202, 1956 Ala. LEXIS 493
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedSeptember 6, 1956
Docket6 Div. 639
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 90 So. 2d 246 (Limbaugh v. Comer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Limbaugh v. Comer, 90 So. 2d 246, 265 Ala. 202, 1956 Ala. LEXIS 493 (Ala. 1956).

Opinion

*204 SPANN, Justice.

Appellant, Oscar Limbaugh, filed his bill in equity in the Circuit Court of Jefferson County, Alabama, to settle a dispute as to the location of the boundary line between the property of appellant and William W. Comer, the appellee. The dispute arose when the respondent, Comer, began making certain improvements which the complainant, Limbaugh, claimed extended over the boundary line of the coterminous property and onto the land of the complainant. From an adverse decree complainant appeals.

The questions presented by appellant’s assignments of error may be grouped into three principal categories:

1. What degree of certainty is required in the description of a boundary line established by a court decree?
2. When must judicial landmarks be ordered to be placed upon a boundary line so established ?
3. Of what weight must testimony taken ore tenus in open court before a judge in equity be to support the finding of the location of a boundary line?

The court answers the questions so presented on this appeal as follows:

A decree establishing the location of a boundary line between the lands of coterminous owners must be reasonably certain within itself or by reference to the pleadings, evidence or documents filed in the cause, and the decree must be so' certain that the line may be located and marked by an officer of the court who may be appointed to so mark the line without reference to extrinsic evidence or the use of his own discretion or by drawing his own conclusions as to any fact determinant of the true location of the line.

Where a decree refers to a survey without more in undertaking to describe a boundary line, the decree is not sufficiently certain, but where permanent monuments, natural or artificial, are already on the ground and are shown in evidence and incorporated in the decree they will suffice to fix the boundary. Iron stakes may be permanent monuments and since the decree referred to the iron stakes as being so placed that the line established by the decree could be marked by use of them, the trial court implied that the iron stakes were permanent markers and every presumption in favor of the correctness of the trial court’s decree will be indulged. The description of the boundary line contained in the decree leaves no room for the drawing of conclusions or exercise of discretion in the location or marking of the line established.

The next question urged on the court by appellant involves an interpretation of Title 47, Section 4, Code of Alabama 1940. The section reads:

“The judgment shall locate and define the boundary lines involved by reference to well-known permanent landmarks, and if it shall be deemed for the interest of the parties, after the entry of judgment, the court may direct a competent surveyor to establish a permanent stone or iron landmark in accordance with the judgment, from which future surveys- of the land embraced in the judgment shall be made. Such landmarks shall have distinctly cut or marked thereon ‘judicial landmark.’ The surveyor shall make report to the court, and in his report shall accurately describe the landmark so erected, and define its location as nearly as practicable.”

Appellant contends that the decree rendered in the instant case improperly failed *205 to so order judicial landmarks to be placed upon the boundary line established. He relies on the case of Baldwin v. Harrelson, 229 Ala. 469, 158 So. 416, to support his contention wherein the court remanded a decree for revision by such an order. But appellee contends, and rightfully so, in our view, that the inclusion of such an order in the decree is a matter to be determined in the discretion of the trial court. Appellee relies heavily on the case of Redden v. Otwell, 252 Ala. 653, 42 So.2d 454, to support his contention. We are of the opinion that the trial court did not abuse its discretion and that appellee’s contention must prevail. In the case before us, the trial court referred to permanent landmarks in its decree thus satisfying the statute.

The third question sought to be presented by the appellant is whether the evidence in the case was sufficient to support the finding of the trial court that the location of the boundary line was the center line of the “Old Tennessee Road” as represented on a certain survey admitted as evidence in the case. In his brief, appellee has directed the court’s attention to testimony sufficient, we think, to support the finding of the trial court. Appellant’s brief does not contain a concise statement of the record including a condensed .recital of the evidence in narrative form so as to present the substance clearly and concisely as required by Supreme Court Rule 10, Title 7 Appendix, Code 1940. Consequently, we do not here recite the facts which we feel sustain the contention of the appellee that the evidence is sufficient to support the trial court’s finding. Case v. O’Shields, 30 Ala.App. 254, 4 So.2d 202; Lamar Life Ins. Co. v. Kemp, 30 Ala.App. 138, 1 So.2d 760.

The two questions properly presented by appellant for our consideration both relate to the adequacy of the decree of the trial court. Appellant contends first that the decree is not sufficiently certain in its ■description of the boundary line. That portion of the decree objected to by appellant is as follows:

“ * * * The court is clearly of the opinion from the testimony that the boundary line which controls is the center line of the said old road, sometimes referred to in the testimony as the ‘old Tennessee Road’. The court has had for consideration, therefore, the question of ascertaining where the center line of the old Tennessee Road is. The court is of the opinion, and so finds, that the overwhelming weight of the credible testimony in the case shows that the map and survey of engineer and surveyor Whitson in all substantial respects is accurate and fixes the center line of the said road. This map and survey is in evidence as the respondent’s exhibit No. 5. * * * The Whitson line in the center of the old Tennessee road is presently marked .by iron stakes, * * *.
« * * ‡ ij< *
“2. The dividing line between the parties in the general direction of west from the Comer lands is fixed in accordance with the Whitson survey as shown on exhibit number 5 of the respondent, the said boundary line thus fixed being presently marked by iron markers.”

The degree of certainty required in a decree fixing the location of a boundary line may be determined from a consideration of the following cases:

Baldwin v. Harrelson, 225 Ala. 386, 143 So. 558, 559:

“When such a bill seeks only the statutory relief,, the complainant, upon proving the statutory allegations, is entitled to have the line described and located with reasonable certainty by the decree of the court (Clarke v. Earnest, 224 Ala. 165, 139 So. 223), which shall, within itself or by reference to the pleading or other records *206 in the cause, completely and accurately describe the true line. Hopkins v. Duggar, 204 Ala. 626, 87 So. 103; Alverson v. Floyd, 219 Ala. 68, 121 So. 55; Jenkins v.

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Bluebook (online)
90 So. 2d 246, 265 Ala. 202, 1956 Ala. LEXIS 493, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/limbaugh-v-comer-ala-1956.