Opinion ID: 1427051
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: burden of proof of objective uncertainty

Text: An early line of cases placed the burden of proving uncertainty or dispute on the party claiming boundary by acquiescence. Peterson v. Johnson, 84 Utah at 93-94, 34 P.2d at 698-99; Home Owners' Loan Corp. v. Dudley, 105 Utah at 219-20, 141 P.2d at 166; Willie v. Local Realty Co., 110 Utah at 530-32, 175 P.2d at 722-23; Glenn v. Whitney, 116 Utah at 272-73, 209 P.2d at 260. For example, since the fence in Home Owners' Loan Corp. v. Dudley, supra , was not shown to have been established to settle any dispute or to establish any boundary line, the true location of which was unknown or even uncertain, boundary by acquiescence was held to have failed. 105 Utah at 219, 141 P.2d at 166. A few years later, however, in Brown v. Milliner, supra , this Court rejected the ruling in this line of cases, stating: In some of the opinions of this court on the subject of disputed boundaries, there are statements to the effect that the location of the true boundary must be uncertain, unknown or in dispute before an agreement between the adjoining landowners fixing the boundary will be upheld, citing Tripp v. Bagley, supra, in support thereof... . But the Tripp case does not require a party relying upon a boundary which has been acquiesced in for a long period of time to produce evidence that the location of the true boundary was ever unknown, uncertain or in dispute. That the true boundary was uncertain or in dispute and that the parties agreed upon the recognized boundary as the dividing line will be implied from the parties' long acquiescence. 120 Utah at 27, 232 P.2d at 208. Numerous decisions after Brown v. Milliner used a similar approach, either by omitting this subject from the list of elements to establish the doctrine or by requiring the defending landowner to prove the absence of a dispute or uncertainty in fixing the boundary as a means of rebutting a presumption of boundary by acquiescence. Wright v. Clissold, 521 P.2d at 1226. See, e.g., Universal Investment Corp. v. Kingsbury, 26 Utah 2d at 37, 484 P.2d at 174; King v. Fronk, 14 Utah 2d at 138, 378 P.2d at 895; Motzkus v. Carroll, 7 Utah 2d at 242-43, 322 P.2d at 395-96. However, in Florence v. Hiline Equipment Co., Utah, 581 P.2d 998 (1978), this Court was again squarely faced with the question of who should carry the burden of proof. In holding that boundary by acquiescence did not apply, the trial court had stated as a conclusion of law [t]hat the doctrine of boundary by acquiescence arises only when the true boundary is either unknown, uncertain, or in dispute, none of which was proved in this case. Id. at 1000. The Court, in an opinion authored by Justice Hall (only one justice dissenting), affirmed that decision and its statement of the law, noting that it was consistent with this Court's prior holdings. Id. The Florence holding was apparently ignored (but not questioned) in three subsequent cases. [5] Then, in rejecting boundary by acquiescence, our two most recent cases discuss the absence of uncertainty or dispute in conjunction with the affirmative requirements of the doctrine and contain no intimation that this subject is part of the burden of a record landowner seeking to rebut a presumption. Leon v. Dansie, Utah, 639 P.2d 730 (1981); Madsen v. Clegg, Utah, 639 P.2d 726 (1981). In the latter case, this Court stated: In the absence of any initial uncertainty concerning the ownership of the property in question, the doctrine of boundary by acquiescence has no application. Id. at 729 (emphasis added). The question of burden of proof is about evenly balanced on the authorities. On policy, both positions are supportable by persuasive arguments. The allocation of the burden of proof could therefore depend on what one assumes about whether it is the record owner or the claimant by acquiescence who has superior access to facts about events long past, but that basis of decision is unacceptable because either assumption could be made and neither could be justified empirically. In this circumstance, we are especially well advised to limit our rule of law to the facts before us. This case involves property in the city of Provo, where survey information is readily available. It is therefore reasonable for the law to require the parties in this case to locate their property lines on the ground by means of the record title and reasonably available survey information rather than by acquiescence in a fence line or other identifiable points on the ground. Consequently, as to this circumstance we hold that the party claiming boundary by acquiescence has the burden of proving objective uncertainty as part of the prima facie elements of the doctrine of boundary by acquiescence. [6] Notwithstanding this allocation of the burden of proof, the record landowner may, of course, conclusively negate the existence of objective uncertainty by proving that the claimant or his predecessors in title had reason to know the location of the true boundary before the expiration of the period of acquiescence.