Faulkenberry v. Truesdell
Faulkenberry v. Truesdell
Opinion of the Court
The end arrived at by all the rules of location, is to establish for the plaintiff, in an action to try the title, the lines run or described in the grant he produces, where, as in this case, such a muniment of title is produced, elder and therefore paramount. If the original surveyor made his tracks, the object is to retrace them ; if he platted by description, the object is to fulfil the terms of it, so far as the evidence may permit and no law or adverse proof may overrule.
Since then the object is to follow the original surveyor, it is proper to begin where he did, if that point can be ascertained ; at all events not to reverse the direction of his movements until, in pursuing them, we have reached a point beyond which his footprints are no longer to be discerned.
In regard to those lines that involve this contest, the direction of the original survey was from an easterly to a west-wardly point. It may well be conjectured that the surveyor did not actually run the line along the Williams boundary, as the corners represented do not appear to have been marked. Yet the distance is given, 49 chains, and so is the course, S. 80 W. To establish that line, especially its termination westwardly, is all-important in this question of location. On that line the boundary called for is the Williams tract. Its beginning point is on the Mathews tract. That tract is represented on the re-survey. The Williams tract is satisfactorily located. Then there seems to be a propriety in beginning to trace that line either fiom the Mathews tract, or from the eastern corner of the Williams tract. It is not material in this case at which point, of these two, we may begin. The course of the plaintiff on that boundary is controlled by the line of Williams. Where shall he stop 1
From that point how shall we proceed ? The survey must be guided by such means as the plaintiff affords. His plat gives course and distance, and represents a comer between B and G. If G be given, and we have also the course from that, and there be nothing to control that course, the mode of closing is not at all doubtful; the lines must be run, by course, from the two ascertained points, and the place of intersection will show the intermediate comer. Now the point G is given; it is confessedly a corner for plaintiff. The result has been stated ; the intermediate comer will be found at H, which is fatal to the plaintiff. If the line from G be conformed to certain old marked timber for a portion of the distance, the result to this case would be the same. In so closing from the ascertained points, B and G, there is no departure from the elements of location which the plaintiff’s own plat affords, except in the particular of distance. In closing by any other mode from B to G, we should abandon the description of that plat, both as to course and distance, not to mention shape also, which would be necessarily incident to the other variations.
If the mode of closing between B and G was indicated by the plaintiff’s platt to be by a single line instead of by two constituting an intermediate corner, the case of Cain Hodge might be invoked. If distance be taken on the course from B, and the like be doné on the course from G, and the points so made be closed by a straight line, while this would give three lines and two corners, instead of two lines and one corner, and be wholly unauthorized by any rule of location, the trespass would at the same time be excluded.
We shall not dwell upon the fact, that the grant under
We think the finding of the jury in this case is more conformable to the rules of location as they apply to the facts adduced, than any other which we could prescribe. Unless we could dictate a better re-survey than that which is sanctioned by their verdict, it ought to stand; and, therefore, the motion must be refused.
Motion refused.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.