Opinion ID: 2623510
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Intent to Transfer a Certain Acreage

Text: ¶ 43 The first issue that the discrepancies in the 1967 deed raise is whether the parties' primary intent was to convey 75.8 acres or to convey property with specifically defined boundaries. The parties to the 1967 deed either intended to convey 75.8 acres and chose the boundaries accordingly, or they chose the boundaries of the property they intended to convey and calculated the acreage accordingly. The trial court erred in concluding from the evidence that the parties intended to transfer about seventy-five acres, rather than property along specific boundaries. ¶ 44 To determine the parties' intent, we look first to the terms of the 1967 deed. In deed construction, metes and bounds descriptions prevail over acreage. A statement of quantity ordinarily adds nothing to a particular description except where the grantor has unequivocally expressed an intention to pass only a certain quantity of land. David A. Thomas & James H. Backman, Thomas and Backman on Utah Real Property Law § 13.05(b)(7)(i)(D)(5) (1999). The property description in question defines the boundaries with specificity and contains no unequivocal expression of intent to convey a specific quantity of land. Rather, the placement of the sentence, Containing in all 75.8 acres, more or less, after the metes and bounds description indicates that the acreage was a calculation of the quantity of land described by the metes and bounds description. The inclusion of the phrase more or less bolsters this position. 23 Am.Jur.2d Deeds § 251 (General references to quantity, within the context of more specific descriptions of the property, are not a controlling factor as to the area of land conveyed or... in a deed. This principle is especially operative where the land is represented to contain a certain number of acres `more or less.' (footnotes omitted)). Therefore, the language of the 1967 deed evidences that, while the parties may have believed they were conveying 75.8 acres, they primarily intended to transfer property along specific boundaries. ¶ 45 Our analysis on this point, however, is not limited exclusively to principles of deed construction. Extrinsic evidence further confirms that the parties' primary intent was to convey property defined by specific boundaries, not to convey a specific acreage. ¶ 46 In finding that the parties intended to convey seventy-five acres, the trial court weighed the fact that the purchase price was calculated on a per acre basis multiplied by 75.8 acres. However, the universal convention in transfers of real property is to base payment on quantity. Thus, it is doubtful that the parties negotiated a purchase of 75.8 acres as opposed to merely calculating the purchase price in reliance on the mistaken property description contained in the deed. The trial court further found that the Ericksens' payment of property taxes on seventy-five acres over the years evidenced intent to convey 75.8 acres. However, the property taxes were also assessed in reliance on the deed's mistaken acreage statement. The purchase price and the payment of taxes, if anything, support the conclusion that the parties believed that property transferred contained 75.8 acres, not that the primary intent of the parties was to transfer 75.8 acres. ¶ 47 Perhaps the best extrinsic evidence of the parties' intent is Alton Veibell's testimony that he and Durell Ericksen negotiated specific boundaries and never discussed a conveyance of a specific number of acres in negotiating the 1967 transaction. In light of this testimony, and the language of the 1967 deed, the trial court's finding that the parties intended a transfer of about 75.8 acres is clearly erroneous. We conclude instead that the parties intended a transfer of property along specific boundaries.