Court Opinion

ID: 9854055
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:59:56.355586+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:53.628671
License: Public Domain

STEELMAN, Judge,
dissenting
I respectfully dissent from the majority’s analysis affirming the trial court’s denial of plaintiff’s motion for directed verdict at the close of all of the evidence, and the denial of plaintiff’s motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict after the trial.
A deed is to be construed by the court and not by the jury. WalMart Stores, Inc. v. Ingles Mkts., Inc., 158 N.C. App. 414, 417, 581 S.E.2d 111, 114 (2003) (quoting Elliott v. Cox, 100 N.C. 536, 538, 397 S.E.2d 319, 320 (1990)). “ ‘The language of the deed being clear and unequivocal, it must be given effect according to its terms, and we may not speculate that the grantor intended otherwise.’ ” County of Moore v. Humane Soc’y of Moore Cty., Inc., 157 N.C. App. 293, 298, 578 S.E.2d 682, 685 (2003) (quoting Southern Furniture Co. v. Dep’t of Transp., 133 N.C. App. 400, 403, 516 S.E.2d 383, 386 (1999)). Ordinary terms contained in a deed must be given their plain meaning. Id.
*218The language of the deeds in the chain of title for both the property of plaintiff and defendants states the boundary line runs “up the branch,” and not in two straight lines between the three undisputed markers.1 The terms must be given effect according to their plain meaning, and the grantors intended for the branch or stream to be the dividing line between the two properties. “ ‘The Court considers it settled upon authority that up the river is the same as along the river, unless there be something else beside course and distance to control it.’ ” Tallassee Power Company v. C.W. Savage et al., 170 N.C. 625, 630, 87 S.E. 629, 631 (1916) (citation omitted). According to the express language contained in the deed, the grantors intended for the boundary line to run along the branch.
The grantors’ description of the branch as the boundary controls over the distances mentioned in the deed. In the cases cited by the majority, the call for a permanent natural monument controls the boundary, rather than any distance contained in the deed. Cutts v. Casey, 271 N.C. 165, 170, 155 S.E.2d 519, 522 (1967); Brown v. Hodges, 232 N.C. 537, 541, 61 S.E.2d 603, 606 (1950). The boundary begins at “a white oak . . . and runs up the branch ... to a maple, at the forks of said branch.” Then, from the maple “up the east prong of said branch ... to a post oak.” The branch is a permanent natural monument, which the grantors described in the deeds. This description unequivocally established the branch as the natural boundary between the two properties.
The majority holds that a factual dispute as to the location of the boundary lines existed for the jury to decide. However, there is no latent ambiguity that required the jury to determine which branch on the property the grantor intended to describe in the deed. See Sherrod v. Battle, 154 N.C. 345, 349-50, 70 S.E. 834, 836 (1911). The only issue in this case is what constituted the boundary lines described as running “up the branch.” The determination was a matter of law for the court, not the jury.
I would hold the boundary line in dispute followed the path of the stream according to the express language contained in the deeds of both parties. The trial court should have granted plaintiff’s motion for directed verdict at the close of all the evidence, and should not have submitted the case to the jury. The judgment of the trial court should be reversed, and the case remanded to the District Court of Wilkes County for entry of judgment in favor of plaintiff.

. A copy of a plat showing the location of the branch and the disputed properties is attached to this dissent.