Court Opinion

ID: 9612908
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:12:13.539262+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:03:23.652912
License: Public Domain

SWANSTROM, Judge,
specially concurring.
I concur in vacating the summary judgment granted to the Curries. I also concur in the remand, because, in any event, the district court may have to approve a survey to ultimately resolve the dispute. However, I believe that on the present record, the Walkinshaws are entitled to summary judgment in regard to the meaning of the deeds in question. My reasons are as follows.
The resolution of this dispute is controlled entirely by the eastern boundary of Parcel B. The placement of that boundary determines exactly where the western boundary of Parcel C, the Curries’ parcel, lies. There can be no overlap and no gap between the two parcels. This is so because the boundaries of Parcel B were established before the boundaries of Parcel C. More importantly, the deed by which Gwen Hood conveyed Parcel C to the Curries in 1982 clearly makes the western boundary of Parcel C coincide with the eastern boundary of Parcel B. The effect of the description used in conveying Parcel C is to make the boundaries of Parcel C dependent upon and subordinate to the true eastern boundary of Parcel B. To this extent, at least, the Walkinshaws’ contention is correct; their interest in Parcel B is “superior” to the Curries’ interest in Parcel C.
In the deed to Parcel B recorded in Book 272 at page 16 is the one phrase about which the dispute is centered. The phrase is “to a point exactly midway between the Northeast and Northwest corners of Lot 10.” This phrase describes a single point that is easily located both on the ground and on a plat with mathematical certainty. As discussed later, it is immaterial whether this midpoint is thought of as being on a single straight line, on a series of short straight lines comprising a true meander line, or on a sinuous high-water mark. The fact remains, however, that unless the point in question will always fall on a straight line drawn from corner to corner, the point will not be “exactly midway between ” the two designated corners of Lot 10. By definition, the point must also be equidistant from the two corner points. Here, according to the record, the two corner points are marked and are not disputed. Thus, a point “exactly midway between” the two corners is fixed and certain. There is only one point on the face of the earth that fulfills the description. The point is precise and permanent; it will never change with time regardless of how the river banks might change from year to year.
The Curries find ambiguity in the description by looking to the described course coming to the point in question. That course is described as being “along the high water level of the Spokane River 200 ft. more or less.” They argue that this language suggests an intention of the grantor to use the midpoint of a sinuous line surveyed exactly along the high-water mark of the river. Using such a midpoint gains them a few extra feet in their “half” of Lot 10. They must first concede that their suggested “midpoint” does not fall “exactly midway between” the two corners or there would be no dispute and no claimed ambiguity.
It should be noted first that the course “along the high water level of the Spokane River 200 ft. more or less ” (emphasis added) is not a precise course and distance. Taken in context with the entire description, it cannot be said that this particular call is intended to be controlling or even of equal “dignity” to the precise point defined as its terminus. The principle involved is well recognized.
Precise and general descriptions irreconcilable. — If there is a precise and perfect description showing that the parties actually located the land upon the earth and another general in its terms, and they cannot be reconciled, the latter *595should yield to the former. This is in accordance with the general rule that generalities always yield to precise language.
F. CLARK, A TREATISE ON THE LAW OF SURVEYING AND BOUNDARIES § 330 (J. Grimes 4th ed. 1976) (hereafter CLARK). Thus, where the language that gives rise to an “ambiguity” must yield to other more precise language, in reality there is no ambiguity.
Secondly, it is a mistake to say that in order to give meaning to the phrase we must hold that the grantor, Hazel Walkinshaw, intended a line would be literally snaked along the high-water mark, following every sinuousity of the river and then divided along its length. The Curries urge this unusual meaning to the phrase, reading into it far more than is commonly intended.
It is not disputed here that the actual northern boundary of each of the described parcels is the mean high-water mark of the Spokane River. Actual boundaries can fluctuate from year to year as the river alters its banks slightly or greatly. See, e.g., 6 G. THOMPSON, COMMENTARIES ON THE MODERN LAW OF REAL PROPERTY § 3054, quoted earlier in the main opinion; and CLARK, §§ 263, 265. It is neither necessary nor practical for surveyors to attempt to follow and reproduce all of the minute windings of the high-water mark. Indeed, surveyors are directed to use less complex methods to describe riparian property. CLARK, supra.
The running of a boundary line by courses and distances along the bank of a river will not prevent the water from being the boundary in accordance with the normal rules regulating boundary lines on navigable and nonnavigable rivers. Indeed, it may be considered a canon in American jurisprudence that where the calls in a conveyance of land are for two corners at, in, or on a stream or its bank and there is an intermediate line extending from one such corner to the other, the stream is the boundary, unless there is something which excludes the operation of this rule by showing that the intention of the parties was otherwise. [Footnotes omitted.]
12 AM.JUR.2D Boundaries § 27 (1964) (quoting in part St. Louis v. Rutz, 138 U.S. 226, 243, 11 S.Ct. 337, 343, 34 L.Ed. 941 (1891)).
Thus, I believe that it is immaterial whether the point selected by Hazel Walkinshaw falls on the mean high-water mark. In fact, the point may be above or below the mean high-water mark. If the point is found to be within the high-water marks of the river, witness markers may be set in safe locations according to the prescribed surveying practices.
From the described precise point the description goes on as follows. “Thence in a Southerly direction 520 ft., more or less to the new Post Falls Hiway [sic] Dist. right of way known as East Riverview Drive.” This course is not ambiguous as to its direction and the distance called for here plays no part in this dispute. “General compass terms such as ‘northerly,’ ‘westerly,’ etc., where there is no monument or other object to direct the inclination to another compass point, must be construed to mean north or west.” CLARK, § 338. Nothing in the deed suggests that “southerly” was intended to mean anything but “south.”
In summary, I believe that the controlling points used to describe Parcel B are not ambiguous. Accordingly, the trial court should have no need to accept extrinsic evidence of the grantor’s intention concerning the eastern boundary of Parcel B.