Opinion ID: 1731824
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Surveyor's Testimony

Text: At trial the Wades called as a witness Maury Gunter, the County Engineer for Newton County. The qualifications of Mr. Gunter were admitted by counsel for Bay Springs. Gunter testified that he did private survey work and that he had been employed by the Wades to survey Section 5, Township 7 North, Range 11 East in Newton County. Gunter presented a detailed plat depicting the line separating the west half of Section 5 from the east half. The plat also depicted the 79 acres from which the timber in question had been cut and removed. Bay Springs assigns as error the trial court's receipt of this testimony and plat as evidence. Bay Springs argues that Gunter started at a pine knot which a neighbor showed him to be a corner for another survey. Gunter did not use a governmental survey corner as his point of beginning. Gunter testified that his survey showed an established corner identified by a pine knot which, in his professional judgment, accurately located the true section corner. In addition, Gunter knew, located and used on his plat the northeast corner of Section 5 as it had been an established corner identified by a pine stake and an iron pin. Craft v. Thompson, 405 So.2d 128 (Miss. 1981) recognizes the well settled proposition that the testimony by a surveyor, and his plat of the property surveyed, is admissible so long as the qualifications of the surveyor are established, as well as the quality of the instruments used by him. Factual questions relating to the making of the survey are for the resolution of the chancellor [or jury]. 405 So.2d at 130. Here there was no attack on the instruments used by Gunter. The only authority cited by Bay Springs in support of its view that Gunter's testimony should have been excluded is Kelley v. Welborn, 217 Miss. 16, 63 So.2d 413 (1953). We read Kelley as establishing the correctness of the trial judge's decision to admit the testimony and plat of Mr. Gunter. The opinion in Kelley explains that the surveyor did not claim to have started his survey at a recognized corner established by the original government survey, but he did testify that he had previously surveyed in that area and started at an old recognized corner and that his survey tied in with the old established lines. The accuracy of this survey was for the jury, Harris v. McMullan, 212 Miss. 382, 54 So.2d 544, and the trial court committed no error in refusing to exclude it. 217 Miss. at 21, 63 So.2d at 414. Enough said.