Opinion ID: 2448997
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Land Grant And Conveyance

Text: On April 5, 1948, the United States issued a patent granting Claude Yeisley title to Tract A, consisting of 4.45 acres of land in Ketchikan. [1] In 1953 Harold and Ellen Cowan built a house on a portion of Tract A with Claude's permission. Claude also commissioned Milford Page to prepare a plat of Lot 1, the portion of Tract A on which the Cowans had built their house. The Page plat showed a 30-foot wide R.O.W., or right-of-way, at the southeastern boundary of Tract A, but it was never recorded. In July 1956 Claude executed and recorded a warranty deed (1956 deed) conveying Lot 1 to the Cowans. The legal description of Lot 1 in the 1956 deed matched the description on the Page plat. The 1956 deed also granted the Cowans [a] perpetual right of way running with the land over the 30 foot strip of right of way, which right of way abuts the southeasternly sideline of ... Tract A. In 1960 and 1963 Claude executed warranty deeds conveying Lots 2-4 of Tract A to James and Maxine Smith (the Smiths). In 1963 Claude executed and recorded another warranty deed (1963 deed) conveying a lot of land adjacent to the southeastern boundary of Tract A to the Cowans. In 1971 Claude executed and recorded a warranty deed (1971 deed) conveying Lot 5 of Tract A to his son and daughter-in-law, James and Sharon Yeisley. In 1973 Claude executed and recorded another warranty deed (1973 deed) conveying a large portion of Tract A to James and Sharon. None of the above deeds explicitly conveyed the 30-foot strip of land (the disputed land) first referred to in the Page plat as a R.O.W. The sole reference to the disputed land in any of the deeds is the grant of a perpetual right of way running with the land in the 1956 deed to the Cowans.