Opinion ID: 2631219
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Description of the Property

Text: Mission claims that another defect exists in the agreement, that is, the description of the property as the lodge and the land on which it is located, along with the ski lift, which Mission argues is insufficient and unclear. Mission contends that the district court improperly considered a map attached to the recorded agreement, because the map was not referred to in the agreement and appears to have been attached to the agreement simply in order to have it recorded with the agreement as one document. Mission further asserts that the map does no better than the agreement itself in informing where the lodge and lift are on the ground and thus cannot provide an adequate description. As a general rule, a written instrument purporting to convey real property must contain a sufficient description of the property. Worley Highway District v. Kootenai County, 98 Idaho 925, 928, 576 P.2d 206, 209 (1978). A description contained in a deed will be sufficient so long as quantity, identity or boundaries of property can be determined from the face of the instrument, or by reference to extrinsic evidence to which it refers. Haney v. Molko, 123 Idaho 132, 844 P.2d 1382 (Ct.App.1992). In Haney, the Court of Appeals concluded that the property descriptions in the Certificate of Sale and the IRS Deed, which indicated section number, township and range and tax parcel numbers were adequate to convey title. The court reasoned that by referring to the legal descriptions of the tax parcel numbers that were provided, it was possible for someone to identify exactly what property was being conveyed. Id. at 136, 844 P.2d at 1386. The description contained in the December 19, 1990, agreement, unlike the description in Haney, does not refer to a separate instrument containing a legal description of the property. The district court found that the map identified a portion of the Coeur d'Alene National Forest, and shown on the map are portions of Sections 13, 18, 19 and 24, Township 48 North, and Ranges 2 East and 3 East, with a straight line running between two circles and slightly oblique to the vertical line separating Ranges 2 East and 3 East, with designations `chair lift,' `ski lodge,' and two references near to the two circles each reading `ski tower.' There was no evidence that either the City or the grantor, Bunker, were uncertain or confused concerning the property conveyed by the agreement. Evidently, they knew exactly where the Tamarack Lodge and Chair Lift No. 4 were located, since possession of these items already had been transferred to the City under the lease before the December 19, 1990, agreement was executed. Furthermore, there was no evidence presented to show that there was any more than one Tamarack Lodge or Chair Lift No. 4 as fixtures located within the area known as the Silver Mountain Ski Resort. The agreement provided that the City would deed the land under the lodge to Bunker Limited Partnership on the termination of the lease for the Silver Mountain Resort. Thus, the quantity of land involved was only the amount directly underneath the lodge, and not some other, larger parcel within the ski resort area. We conclude that under the circumstances of this case, the subject property was sufficiently described so it was possible for someone to identify exactly what property was being conveyed. Accordingly, we affirm the district court's conclusion that the description of the property conveyed was not defective.