5.4 Metes and Bounds Descriptions and Monuments

Reading Metes and Bounds Like a Retracement Surveyor

A metes-and-bounds description defines land by courses and calls running around the perimeter. The metes are measurements (bearings and distances); the bounds are the objects or limits called for (a river, road, stone, iron pipe, or adjoining owner). FS questions ask you to spot a defective description, choose the controlling call, compute closure, or decide which field evidence to recover before setting a corner.

A complete description starts at a point of beginning (POB), then follows each course in turn until it returns to the POB. It may call for monuments, adjoiners, record lines, curves, or natural features, and may state an area — but area is one of the weakest calls when stronger evidence exists. A parcel "containing 10 acres more or less" is not stretched or shrunk just to total exactly 10 acres.

Priority of Calls (Dignity of Calls)

When the parts of a description conflict and cannot all be true, surveyors and courts apply the priority of calls (also called dignity of calls or rules of construction). The standard order, from strongest to weakest:

1. Natural monuments (rivers, ridges, large rock formations) — nature did not place them to deceive, and they are hard to relocate.
2. Artificial monuments (iron pipes, stones, brass disks, axles) — if original and reliable.
3. Adjoiners (calls for a senior neighbor's established line).
4. Courses and distances — when no monuments or adjoiners control; by the general rule course (bearing) controls over distance, though some states reverse this.
5. Area — the weakest of all and the first to yield.

This hierarchy is a guide to the parties' likely intent, not a mechanical formula. A found pipe controls only if accepted as the called-for original (or a reliable perpetuation of it). The classic exam fact pattern gives a found original monument and a slightly different record distance: the monument controls because it is better evidence of where the original line was run. A record distance prevails only when the monument is gone and no stronger evidence remains.

Bearings, Bases, and Curves

Courses are stated as a bearing and a distance. Bearings are measured from north or south, toward east or west, as an angle of 0 to 90 degrees — for example, N 42 degrees E or S 17 degrees 30 minutes W. The exam expects you to read quadrant bearings fluently and to recognize that two descriptions can share geometry yet differ by a rotated basis of bearings (true north, grid north, magnetic, or an assumed datum).

Old deeds often use magnetic bearings, which drift with magnetic declination over time, so an apparent bearing conflict between an 1880 deed and a modern survey may be a datum difference rather than a true discrepancy.

Curved boundaries add elements the description must supply: the radius, the central (delta) angle, the arc length, the chord bearing, and the chord length, plus whether the curve is concave left or right and tangent to the adjacent course. A missing curve element is a common cause of misclosure. When a description calls "thence along a curve to the right" without enough data to fix it, the surveyor flags the patent defect rather than guessing the radius.

Closure, Retracement, and Ambiguity

Closure is a computational check, not a title rule. If the bearings and distances do not mathematically close, investigate for a transcription error, an omitted curve, a wrong bearing quadrant, or a field condition — do not force the parcel closed without explanation. A large misclosure usually signals a drafting error or insufficient data; the correct response is to identify the defect and seek more evidence.

Retracement means following the footsteps of the original surveyor as closely as the evidence allows. A modern measurement that differs from an old record distance does not by itself defeat an original monument; conversely, a freshly set marker with no record support should not override the deed. Questions test this balance by pairing precise measurements with older physical evidence.

Ambiguities are patent or latent. A patent ambiguity appears on the face of the document (a missing course, an impossible call). A latent ambiguity appears only when applying the description on the ground (two stones each fit one call). The surveyor documents the ambiguity and resolves it where survey evidence permits; where intent cannot be determined from survey evidence, legal construction may be required.

Practice marking each call: circle the POB, underline monuments, label adjoiners, list courses, and compute closure — then ask which evidence best reflects the original conveyance, not which answer is mathematically neatest.