Court Opinion

ID: 9853202
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:44:26.195165+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:42.703621
License: Public Domain

CROCKETT, Justice
(concurring with reservation):
I concur except in the statement that “boundary by acquiescence arises only when a true boundary is either unknown, uncertain, or in dispute.” It is my opinion that the view which is better considered and better serves the purpose of that doctrine is that it is not necessary that the true boundary was “unknown, uncertain, or in dispute,” when the fence or other boundary was established. It is sufficient if there is a dispute when the trouble giving rise to the lawsuit arises. If there has been such a boundary which has been accepted and recognized by the adjoining owners as a boundary for the requisite long period of time, it should be presumed that any dispute, disagreement, or uncertainty over the boundary has been resolved in some manner and should be forgotten. This is as I read the later cases decided by this Court. See e. g. Fuoco v. Williams, 15 Utah 2d 156, 389 P.2d 143; Baum v. Defa, Utah, 525 P.2d 725.
What I have said is not inconsistent with the proposition that if it is shown that the fence was erected by permission, or by agreement that it merely serve as a barrier, or for some other purpose than as a boundary between the properties, there would be no boundary by acquiescence, because the parties would not be accepting it as a boundary.