Chapter § 60.1 INTRODUCTION TO BOUNDARY-LINE DISPUTES

• Jurisdiction: Oregon

§ 60.1 INTRODUCTION TO BOUNDARY-LINE DISPUTES

An extraordinary amount of litigation in Oregon has involved disputed boundary lines. Added to the number of cases reported must be the countless occasions on which neighbors have managed to resolve their differences without resorting to a lawsuit. There is a great potential for error in old descriptions of land by metes and bounds, which was relatively unimportant to the owners when the land was in large rural tracts. When the land was not put to an intensive use, such problems were most often resolved by tolerance among friendly neighbors. The margin of toleration shrinks quickly, however, when a pasture is being divided into choice building lots.

NOTE: Insurance of a parcel of land by a title company does not preclude boundary problems, because the standard policy excepts from coverage the discrepancies that would be revealed only in an accurate survey, including, specifically, conflicts in boundary lines, shortage in area, and encroachments. See chapter 7. Because of this printed exception, many of the boundary disputes adjudicated in the cases cited in this chapter would not have been covered in advance by title insurance.

Boundary problems arise from two main sources:

(1) Errors, discrepancies, and ambiguities on the face of the instrument itself; and

(2) Discrepancies between the boundaries as stated in the conveyance and as they exist on the ground.

Boundary lines are often marked by natural or artificial monuments, and the occupation of the land in reference to the monuments is not always consistent with the legal description. Furthermore, even if the legal description was originally accurate and consistent with monuments, both natural and artificial boundaries can change. For example, rivers and streams used as natural dividing lines change their courses in time, and roadways, commonly used as convenient markers, are sometimes relocated.

With respect to boundaries defined by bodies of water, the general rule is that such boundary lines follow gradual changes, or changes by accretion, in the beds and shores of the water, but not sudden, or avulsive, changes. State By & Through State Land Bd. v. Corvallis Sand & Gravel Co., 283 Or 147, 161-67, 582 P2d 1352 (1978); Wilt v. Endicott, 68 Or App 481, 487, 684 P2d 595, rev den, 297 Or 824 (1984). Although the law presumes that changes to riparian land occur by accretion, the question whether movement of a river is gradual or avulsive is one of fact. Wilt, ...