Title: Mobley v. Turner
Citation: 346 So. 2d 427
Docket Number: N/A
State: Alabama
Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court
Date: May 27, 1977

346 So. 2d 427 (1977)
Eugene MOBLEY
v.
Sue F. TURNER.
SC 1740.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
May 27, 1977.
*428 Michael A. Figures of Crawford, Blacksher, Figures &amp; Brown, Mobile, for appellant.
J. Milton Coxwell of Coxwell &amp; Coxwell, Monroeville, for appellee.
ALMON, Justice.
This appeal involves a boundary line dispute between Eugene Mobley, appellant-defendant, and Sue Turner, appellee-plaintiff. No record was made of the court proceedings. Pursuant to Rule 10(d) of the Alabama Rules of Appellate Procedure (1977), appellant submitted his "Statement of the Evidence" and appellee responded with his. The trial court approved the latter, from which we quote:
On review, we will accept the approved statement of the evidence as true. U. S. v. Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Co., 4 Cir., 281 F.2d 698 (1960); Hawkins v. Missouri Pac. R. Co., 8 Cir., 188 F.2d 348 (1951). Rule 10(c) of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure is in substance identical to our Rule 10(d).
The error complained of by appellant is that the trial judge did not follow the procedure outlined by Tit. 47, §§ 5 and 6, Code of Alabama 1940, Recompiled 1958.[1] He *429 contends that § 6 requires the trial judge to file a written decree, and that such a decree does not exist. We cannot agree.
According to the approved statement of the evidence, both parties agreed in open court that a survey would be made and that it would be binding. In Carlisle v. McCleskey, 264 Ala. 436, 87 So. 2d 831 (1956), the parties similarly agreed in open court to end their boundary line dispute by having a survey made and by being bound by that survey. The court held the survey was not made via Tit. 47, §§ 2-12, but rather, was in the nature of an arbitration agreement.
" . . . Here the appointment of the surveyor, his duties and authority were by virtue of the agreement, more in the nature of an arbitration under sections 829 to 844, Title 7, Code, than a mere survey under sections 5 to 12, Title 47. True, section 831, Title 7, Code, requires the agreement to be in writing, but that is satisfied when it is made in open court. Snodgrass v. Armbrester, 90 Ala. 493, 7 So. 840; Samuels v. Scott, 212 Ala. 679, 103 So. 848; Prestwood v. Watson, 111 Ala. 604, 20 So. 600. See Equity Rule 71, Code 1940, tit. 7, Appendix.
We believe Carlisle controls this case. However, even if Tit. 47, §§ 5, 6 applied, the trial judge would not be placed in error where appellant made no complaint of his procedure; even appellant's statement of the evidence makes no claim to have complained of the judge's procedure.
The judgment is affirmed.
AFFIRMED.
TORBERT, C. J., and BLOODWORTH, JONES and EMBRY, JJ., concur.
[1]  "§ 5. Survey may be directed.Whenever in any suit pending in the circuit court in equity it is pertinent and material to the determination of the issue or issues therein or to the proper entering of a description in the decree therein, to establish or fix a disputed land line or boundaries between coterminous landowners, or to locate the position of a line of the government survey, or to locate a landmarker or other object, the court may, as hereinafter provided, direct a competent surveyor or surveyors to make a survey for the purpose of fixing or establishing the disputed land line or boundaries between coterminous landowners or of locating the position of a line of the government survey or of locating a landmarker or other object."

"§ 6. Decree that survey shall be made.If the court is of the opinion that such survey should be made it shall enter a decree stating the reasons why, in its opinion, such survey should be made and fixing a day on which to hear objections thereof and directing the parties to said suit to show cause, if any, why such survey should not be made as proposed in said decree."