Case ID: scl_2/html/0515-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Thomas Sumter against William Bracey.
    
      Columbia,
    
    1804. Where marked line trees and corners can be found; they ought, ia all cases in making resurveys of land, to govern j but where they cannot be found, then courses and distances are to be resorted to, as the next best guides in surveyings
    TRESPASS to try titles to land in Sumter district. Verdict for plaintiff. Motion for a new trial.
    
      This was a case which turned upon the lines of the lands in dispute, and more particularly one line of the tract.
    It appeared from the plat returned by the surveyor appointed by the court, with the assent of both parties, that a line of marked trees which had been made on the original survey, when the tract had, been run out, was found, but it did not correspond exactly with the course and distance laid down in the original plat annexed to the grant, nor did the corner tree which was found, extend out as far as the distance called for, which left the land in dispute in the plaintiff’s survey; and the question was, which should be the true rule, the line and comer found, or the course and distance t
    
   When, after argument, the Judges determined, that in all cases where the original marked trees and corners, or natural boundaries can be found, they should govern in making resurveys of lands, whether the quantity be more or less than is mentioned in the original grant. Because they are the original metes and bounds fixed by the grantee himself or his agent, as tv ell as by the state, at the time of making the original survey ; and it will not be permitted either to the grantee or the state, afterwards to say that they will not be bound by them; for these lines are generally notorious in the neighbourhood, and the surrounding tracts are always governed and bounded by those that are older; and unless they were taken to be the true lines, it would be a deception and fraud on all the younger grantees. But in all cases where no lines or cornel's, or natural boundaries can be found, then courses and distances must be resorted to, as the next best rule for establishing lines.

New trial refused, and rule discharged.

Present, Grimke, Waties, Bat, Brevard and Lee.-