Scheuerman Investment Co. v. Land Owners Corp.
Scheuerman Investment Co. v. Land Owners Corp.
Opinion of the Court
The object of this action is to settle a land boundary dispute. On April 9, 1890, Christian Scheuerman, who was then the owner of the adjoining tracts of land now owned by the parties to this action, conveyed by deed to Albert M. Brooks a tract of land, the south and westerly boundaries of which were described therein as follows:
“Commencing at the quarter section post between section ten (10) and fifteen (15), township twenty-five (25), north range three (3) east, W. M. and running thence due north, variation twenty-two (22) degrees and forty (40) minutes east, twenty-three hundred and fifty-five and fifty-five hun*614 dredths (2355 & 55-100) feet to a granite monument [this being the beginning point on the south boundary of the land conveyed] ; thence west four hundred (400) feet; thence in a northerly direction, making an angle of ninety-four (94) degrees and sixteen (16) minutes with the first course thirteen hundred and ninety-three (1393) feet to the shore of Puget Sound; . .
This deed appears to have been recorded at the request of Brooks, the grantee, .in the auditor’s office of King county on April 11, 1890. On May 13, 1890, there was signed and acknowledged another deed by Scheuerman, purporting to convey to Brooks land the south and westerly boundaries of which were described as in the deed of April 9, 1890, except the call west from the granite monument was stated therein as 364.53 feet, the difference in the description of the two deeds being a strip of land 35.47 feet wide lying along the westerly boundary, which strip of land is approximately the land here in controversy. Of this deed Brooks has no remembrance and no idea why it was executed. It appears to have been recorded on May 26, 1890, at the request of one Wheeler. There is, however, nothing in the record showing that Wheeler caused it to be recorded at the instance of Brooks, and we have no further information pointing to the fact that Brooks ever voluntarily received this deed. It purports upon its face to have been executed for the purpose of correcting the description in the deed of April 9,. 1890, and recites as follows:
“This instrument is made to correct the description in a certain deed, bearing date the ninth day of April, 1890, made by Christian Scheuerman to Albert M. Brooks and which deed is recorded in volume 97 of deeds, on page 227 of deed records in the auditor’s office in King county, state of Washington.”
In March, 1891, Brooks caused Bay Terrace addition to the city of Seattle to be surveyed and staked upon the ground, and a plat thereof in usual form to be recorded in the auditor’s office of King county. This survey and plat
The claims of appellant rest almost wholly upon the force and effect to be given to the second deed from Scheuerman to Brooks, purporting to be a deed of correction of the description in the first deed. It seems to us that the facts above summarized leave little to be said touching the correctness of the learned trial court’s disposition of the case. It seems that Brooks claimed title under the first deed to him, in conformity with which he platted the addition, and caused it to be surveyed and staked upon the ground. The purported deed of correction is not shown to have been executed under such circumstances as warrant the conclusion that Brooks was thereby divested of title to the strip lying between the westerly boundaries of the descriptions in the deeds, and which he clearly acquired by the first deed. We are also of the opinion that the seemingly nearer conformity of the recorded plat with the description of the purported correction deed does not warrant the view that Brooks thereby adopted that deed as a correction deed. We have noticed that the plat is not controlled by the granite monument, and it may be that a survey north and west from the quarter section corner, ignoring the granite monument, as was done in the original survey and location of the addition upon the ground, would locate the southwest corner of the addition four hundred feet west of the granite monument, as called for in the first deed to Brooks- under which he evidently claimed title. This record lends fully as much support to the view that such a location of that corner is in conformity with the description in the first deed, as- to the view that the granite monument is in fact located due north of the quarter corner. We conclude that the westerly boundary of Bay Terrace addition is as orig
The judgment is affirmed.
Ckow, C. J., Mount, Chadwick, and Gose, JJ., concur.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Scheuerman Investment Company v. Land Owners Corporation
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Boundaries — Establishment—Description in Deeds — Evidence —Sufficiency. Where a grantee in a deed platted the land and actually surveyed and staked the addition upon the ground conforming substantially to the description in his deed, such description must be taken as fixing the boundaries of the tract, notwithstanding that there appears of record a subsequent deed, between the same parties, purporting to be given to correct the description in the first deed, and fixing the west boundary of the tract thirty-five feet east of the boundary first fixed and platted on the ground, where it does not appear that the grantee ever accepted the second deed or caused it to be recorded and had no remembrance of it; nor is such conclusion overcome by the fact that the description in the paper plat conformed more nearly to the description in the second deed than to that in the first deed, the plat omitting reference to a granite monument controlling the description in the deeds.