Court Opinion

ID: 9621406
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 05:57:22.236517+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:16:41.359682
License: Public Domain

Wendell L. Griffen, Judge, dissenting. I would dismiss the appeal in this case for lack of finality because the circuit court’s order does not state with sufficient specificity the boundary lines of the property in dispute. Petrus v. Nature Conservancy, 330 Ark. 722, 957 S.W.2d 688 (1997) (dismissing appeal for lack of finality where the chancellor’s order failed to identify the boundaries of the property in dispute where the parties intended to rely upon a future survey to establish the property boundary). It is well-settled that an order settling a property dispute must describe the boundary line between landowners with sufficient specificity that it may be identified solely by reference to the decree. Id. Here, as in Petrus, supra, no survey was introduced. The order here referred only to a legal description contained in Paragraph V of appellee’s counter-complaint, which provided the section, township, and range, and included a boundary description with the measurements of angles and specific lengths of the boundaries of the property that was contained in appellant’s counter-complaint. However, the evidence does not support that the circuit court intended to adopt this legal description as the parties’■ boundary, because, as recognized by the majority, the circuit court expressly indicated in Paragraph 3 of its order that it made no finding as to the location of the property line in this case. Moreover, even if the legal description in Paragraph V of appel-lee’s counter-complaint is the boundary the circuit court intended to adopt, the legal description itself is not contained in the order, and thus, would be insufficient to establish the boundary because the boundary cannot be identified solely by reference to the order. Id. Accordingly, because the order in this case does not identify the boundary line with sufficient specificity, I would dismiss the appeal for lack of finality. I am authorized to state that Judge Crabtree joins in this dissent.