Description

Parol Evidence V – 1.5 Contact Hours
The case-in-chief is Dowdell v. Cotham, Tennessee Court of Appeals 2007. This is a boundary dispute case involving two adjoining landowners who had lived next door to each other for more than 20 years without any problems, until Dowdell decided to sell his property and hired a surveyor to determine where his property lines were located. That’s when the trouble started. As the Court observed in the Opinion: “This surveyor’s mark was likely the spark that ignited this dispute.” One of the unique aspects of this boundary dispute case is that the property boundary dispute started by the surveyor was resolved almost exclusively on the testimony of the landowners and a local lay witness with relevant knowledge of the history of the boundary line that was in dispute. This case is a study of the power of parol evidence in resolving boundary location problems. This is a 2-Page Letter covering 1 Court Opinion consisting of 13 pages. This 15-Page document has a 10-Question examination based on the text of the newsletter and the case-in-chief.

OBJECTIVES: To enhance professional competency and improve practitioner’s knowledge of the law as it relates to the practice of land surveying.