Court Opinion

ID: 9551819
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:59:53.790658+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:24:45.397889
License: Public Domain

ELLETT, Justice,
(dissenting):
I dissent. I think that the location of the boundary line was for the trial court under the evidence given and that we should not return the case for a new trial. Undoubtedly all of the evidence available has already been presented, and a new trial would only work an undue and unnecessary hardship upon the parties to this lawsuit. If under the evidence given and findings based thereupon either party should prevail as a matter of law, we should say so.
The main opinion seems to reverse the case because the trial court did not determine whether a corner was lost or obliterated. The trial court probably believed the statement of this court in the case of Henrie v. Hyer, 92 Utah 530, 70 P.2d 154 (1937), relied upon in appellant’s brief and cited in the prevailing opinion. This court in that case at pages 536, 537, and 538 of the Utah Reports at page 157 of 70 P.2d said:
In the instant case, whether the corner were an obliterated corner or a lost corner the result must be the same. * * *
* * . ■ * * * *
* * * Surveyors, in making resurveys or in searching for or relocating or *364re-establishing lost, or obliterated corners, may consider extrinsic and material evidence, as well as the field notes, if there is doubt or uncertainty in the field notes, for the purpose of determining the exact location of lost lines or corners of the original survey. * * * [All emphasis added.]
In the instant matter there was neither doubt nor uncertainty in the field notes. The respondent called three surveyors to testify as to surveys they had separately made. In determining where the dividing line between the land owned by the parties was, those three surveyors started from different known markers — still in place— and each used a copy of the original survey. Two of those witnesses were graduates from college and had had much experience in surveying. The third witness was not asked if he held a degree from a recognized college, but he was a range technical supervisor for the Bureau of Land Management, for whom he had worked for thirty-three years. These three surveyors found five original government survey markers in place, three of which were corner monuments located at the southwest corners of Sections 16, 28, and 33, and two of which were west quarter corners of Sections 21 and 28. There was ample evidence given to enable the court to locate the boundary as he did.
Of the two surveyors who testified for the appellant, one had no degree from any college and the other was the husband of appellant’s granddaughter. It was the prerogative of the trial judge to weigh the testimony of the witnesses, and he was under no compulsion to believe the testimony of either witness called by the appellant, nor was he compelled to believe that the surveys made by appellant’s witnesses were more likely to be correct than were those made by the witnesses called by the respondent.
The purpose of all of the surveys was to locate a boundary line between lands owned by the parties — not to relocate either a lost corner or an obliterated corner. Besides, it is the statutory duty of the county surveyor to re-establish missing or obliterated government lines and corners (Sec. 17-23-9, U.C.A. 1953).
The court went upon the land and observed the country round about it, including markers, fences, lanes, etc., and under the evidence presented to him, it is my opinion that he was justified in finding that the dividing line between the properties was the west line of Cornia Lane.
I would, therefore, affirm the judgment.