Reese v. Murdock

243 P.2d 948, 121 Utah 517, 1952 Utah LEXIS 163
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedMay 5, 1952
DocketNo. 7656
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 243 P.2d 948 (Reese v. Murdock) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Reese v. Murdock, 243 P.2d 948, 121 Utah 517, 1952 Utah LEXIS 163 (Utah 1952).

Opinion

WADE, Justice.

This is a boundary line contest between the purchasers of two adjoining tracts of land from the same grantors. Under the descriptions in the conveyances to each side of this controversy, the west and north boundary line of plaintiffs’ tract coincide with an east and south boundary line of defendants’ tract. The east boundary line of both of these tracts, where defendants’ land extends to the north of plaintiffs’ is the north and south quarter section line. There is an old fence on the east side of the two tracts which according to all the surveys introduced in evidence is either about 12 feet or 30 feet east of the north and south quarter section line. Plaintiffs claim that their west boundary line is 132 feet west from this north and south section line as established by one or the other of these surveys, but defendants contend that since the old monuments marking this quarter section line cannot be now located and since the owners of this tract from the earliest times have claimed to own and held possession. of the land to this old fence under deeds describing the east boundary line as being on the quarter section line, this shows that this old fence was placed on that quarter section line according to the early surveys. For the reader’s convenience, the following [519]*519map of the property in question is inserted for illustrative purposes only, as it is not drawn to exact scale.

Prior to March 6, 1946, a Mr. and Mrs. White and their son owned the land in question which is situated on the north side of 56th South Street at about 999 East in Salt Lake County and consists of several acres. On that day they conveyed by warranty deed to plaintiffs, Mr. and Mrs. Reese, the appellants in this case, an acre from the southeast corner of their larger tract. Plaintiffs’ tract is 132 feet or 8 rods from east to west and borders on the north side of the street, and is 330 feet or 20 rods to the north. The south two rods of the property described in plaintiffs’ first deed was covered by the street and to correct that [520]*520so that they would have a full acre not including the part in the street, on January 31, 1947 the Whites conveyed and warranted an additional two rods to the north. In giving possession under the original deed, Mr. White and Mr. Reese, without a survey, measured 132 feet west from the old fence line on the east where it intersects with the property line on the north side of the street, and placed a post, and then located a point 20 rods to the north and 132 feet west from the old fence line where they placed another post to mark the west boundary of the property conveyed.

On February 13, 1947, the Whites contracted to sell the rest of their tract to defendants, Mr. and Mrs. Murdock. Before entering into such contract, the defendants had two independent surveys made of the property, each of which fixed the quarter corner of the section, which is the southeast corner of plaintiffs’ tract, about 12 feet west of the south end of the old fence line, whereupon plaintiffs claimed an additional 12 feet to the west. Defendants were not satisfied with these surveys and at their request the County Surveyor resurveyed and reestablished the monument at the southeast corner of the northeast quarter of the section, the beginning point of plaintiffs’ property, at a point 30 feet west of the old fence line and again plaintiffs claimed an additional 18-foot strip of land to the west, which defendants resisted. Prior thereto the Whites conveyed to defendants by warranty deed dated July -, 1947, the tract covered by their contract. After the dispute arose, both plaintiffs and defendants demanded that the Whites quitclaim to them the additional disputed property, and on December 5, 1949 the Whites quitclaimed to defendants this property describing all of the two tracts both by metes and bounds and by monuments, but excepting therefrom the property which they had previously conveyed to plaintiffs.

The beginning point in the description in plaintiffs’ deeds is [521]*521but the term “re-established” does not appear either in the description in the defendants’ contract or their warranty deed to this property, but only in the later quitclaim deed where it excepts from the conveyance the property previously conveyed to plaintiffs. However, that term was used in most all of the deeds of transfer in the chain of title to this property, appearing first in a deed dated January 22, 1875. There is no evidence whatever in the record, except the use of this term, of there being such a re-establishment of that point. Of course the use of that term could not refer to the re-establishment by the County Surveyor after this dispute had arisen.

[520]*520“at the southeast corner of the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter of section 17, as re-established”

[521]*521The trial court found that in all of both plaintiffs’ and defendants’ deeds and the deeds in their chain of title to this property, where the terms

“the southeast corner of the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter of section 17”,

whether the word re-established is used or not, it was understood and intended by the parties to such deed to refer to and mean a point on the center of 56th Street directly south of the end of the old fence line. The evidence of where that point was according to the original survey establishing that point or as re-establishing it is very uncertain. There is evidence that this fence line has marked the eastern boundary of this property which has been held without dispute by the predecessors of plaintiffs and defendants for more than fifty years, that the land of the property owner on the east does not even come as far west as that fence but that such owner and his predecessors have during the last fifty years occupied the property up to that fence. There is no evidence of any other monuments on the east marking this point or the east boundary line of this property. This fence line runs clear through to the north boundary line of this section. From the starting point the fence line runs slightly to the west as it goes north until it reaches the north side of the White tract, and at that point it bends-[522]*522to the east a few degrees of due north, so that it is not a straight line nor does it run directly north and south. In view of the uncertainty of the location of this point and line, the findings of the court should be construed as a finding that according to the original and re-establishing surveys, this starting point, that is the quarter quarter corner, is in line with the old fence extended to the center of the street.

Plaintiffs contend that such a finding is not supported by the evidence and the court must adopt one of the surveys. We conclude that such a finding is supported by the evidence. There are no monuments on the ground which indicate where this starting point was located’ either by the original or the re-establishing survey except this old fence. In the conveying of this property in the chain of title, the eastern boundary line is described as running slightly east of due north, but the old fence actually runs slightly west of due north, and at the north boundary line of the White tract there is a bend in the fence toward the east so that from there to the north boundary of the section the fence line runs slightly to the east of due north.

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Bluebook (online)
243 P.2d 948, 121 Utah 517, 1952 Utah LEXIS 163, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reese-v-murdock-utah-1952.