Opinion ID: 1344817
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Four Requirements to Establish Boundary by Acquiescence

Text: Four requirements must be met for a court to find a boundary by acquiescence: (i) occupation up to a visible line marked by monuments, fences, or buildings, (ii) mutual acquiescence in the line as a boundary, (iii) for a long period of time, (iv) by adjoining landowners. Jacobs v. Hafen, 917 P.2d 1078, 1080 (Utah 1996). It is undisputed that the properties in question are adjoining; therefore requirement (iv) is met. On this appeal, the Carters contest the first three requirements only, and argue that another requirement should have been considered.
First, the Carters contend that the first and second requirements are not met because the old fence, which was standing prior to the creation of the common lane, was partially removed when the common lane was created during the 1930s. Hence, they argue, after the creation of the common lane there was no longer a visible line marking the boundary between the properties in which the adjoining landowners could acquiesce. While it is true that the old fence line was removed in part to create the common lane, the northern portion of the fence was not removed until 1992 by the Carters. The trial court apparently viewed this northern fence line as sufficiently visible to satisfy the boundary requirement. We agree. Nowhere has this Court stated that a boundary must be a single uninterrupted structure. See Olsen v. Park Daughters Inv. Co., 29 Utah 2d 421, 511 P.2d 145, 147 (1973) (holding that the law merely requires a recognizable physical boundary of any character, which has been acquiesced in as a boundary for a long period of time (emphasis added)). It is undisputed that before the Carters purchased the West Lot all prior owners of both lots viewed the old fence line as the boundary between the two lots and that the owners occupied their respective properties to that line. The Carters were specifically informed of that fact. In addition, the common lane itself evidences the prominence of the old fence as the boundary line. The center of the common lane followed exactly the line originally followed by the old fence. Furthermore, for numerous years parallel wooden fences, measured eight feet in each direction from the center line, clearly designated the common lane as an additional boundary marker. See Baxter v. Utah Dep't of Transp., 783 P.2d 1045, 1049 (Utah Ct. App.1989) (finding a line down the center of a river adequate to describe the common boundary between counties), cert. denied, 795 P.2d 1138 (Utah 1990). The trial court did not err in finding that the partial fence, together with the well-defined common lane, constituted a sufficiently visible line marking the boundary between the properties. The trial court's conclusion that the respective landowners and their predecessors had acquiesced in the fence line as their properties' boundary is correct. The Carters' next contention is that the third requirement for boundary by acquiescence was not met. We have previously held that in general a boundary must be maintained for at least twenty years to establish boundary by acquiescence. See Staker v. Ainsworth, 785 P.2d 417, 420 (Utah 1990). The Carters argue that because both properties were commonly owned in 1925 and because a portion of the old fence was removed during the 1930s to create the common lane, the fence was not maintained as the property boundary for twenty years. Our holding above essentially disposes of this claim. It is true that common ownership of adjoining properties, even for a brief season, restarts the clock for determining boundary by acquiescence. See Salazar v. Terry, 911 P.2d 1086, 1089 (Colo.1996) (en banc) (holding that two weeks of joint ownership was sufficient to disrupt the acquiescence time period). Even after 1925, however, the remaining portion of the fence and the well-marked common lane comprised a new visible marker for the same boundary line originally established by the old fence. That marker endured until at least 1972 when the Carters purchased the West Lot. It follows that the trial court did not err in finding the third requirement satisfied.
The Carters argue that a fifth element should have been established for the court to find a boundary by acquiescence. They maintain that in addition to the above four requirements, the court had to find that the boundary was objectively uncertain, meaning that there had to be no reasonable way to determine the actual legal boundary. They rely on Halladay v. Cluff, 685 P.2d 500, 503-05 (Utah 1984), for support. Staker expressly overruled the objective uncertainty requirement of Halladay. 785 P.2d at 424. We decline to revert to Halladay or to depart from Staker for the reasons stated therein. In sum, we affirm the trial court's finding of boundary by acquiescence.