Senate File 134 - Introduced



                                       SENATE FILE       
                                       BY  PUTNEY


    Passed Senate, Date               Passed House,  Date             
    Vote:  Ayes        Nays           Vote:  Ayes        Nays         
                 Approved                            

                                      A BILL FOR

  1 An Act relating to legal actions involving disputed boundaries.
  2 BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:
  3 TLSB 1016XS 82
  4 da/je/5

PAG LIN



  1  1    Section 1.  Section 355.4, Code 2007, is amended to read as
  1  2 follows:
  1  3    355.4  BOUNDARY LOCATION.
  1  4    The surveyor shall acquire data necessary to retrace record
  1  5 title boundaries, center lines, and other boundary line
  1  6 locations in accordance with the legal descriptions including
  1  7 applicable provisions of chapter 650 of the parcel or tract of
  1  8 land being surveyed.  The surveyor shall analyze the data and
  1  9 make a careful determination of the position of the boundaries
  1 10 of the parcel or tract of land being surveyed.  The surveyor
  1 11 shall make a field survey, locating and connecting monuments
  1 12 necessary for location of the parcel or tract and coordinate
  1 13 the facts of the survey with the analysis and legal
  1 14 description.  The surveyor shall place monuments marking the
  1 15 corners of the parcel or tract unless monuments already exist
  1 16 at the corners.
  1 17    Sec. 2.  Chapter 650, Code 2007, is repealed.
  1 18                           EXPLANATION
  1 19    This bill eliminates Code chapter 650, which provides
  1 20 procedures for determining the boundaries between adjoining
  1 21 tracts of land which cannot otherwise be established (e.g.,
  1 22 the monuments marking the corners of the tract of land have
  1 23 been lost or destroyed).
  1 24    Currently, under Code chapter 650, an owner of land may
  1 25 bring an action in district court in the county where the land
  1 26 is located, and the court must appoint a commission of
  1 27 surveyors who are required to make a report regarding the true
  1 28 boundaries to the court within 60 days of the commission's
  1 29 appointment (see Code section 650.11).  The commission's
  1 30 report is part of the record of a hearing between the affected
  1 31 landowners who may contest the commission's findings.  After
  1 32 the hearing, the court must enter a decree for the
  1 33 reestablishment of the boundaries which, subject to appeal, is
  1 34 conclusive (see Code section 650.13).  Importantly, Code
  1 35 section 650.14 provides that if the land's boundaries have
  2  1 been "recognized and acquiesced in" for ten years, those
  2  2 boundaries are permanently established.
  2  3    Code chapter 650 relates to a legal action brought under
  2  4 common law to quiet title and to the common law doctrine of
  2  5 adverse possession in which the wrongful possessor of land may
  2  6 nevertheless acquire title to the land (to further the public
  2  7 policy of barring stale claims, and comparable to the
  2  8 operation of a statute of limitations).  Code section 614.1
  2  9 provides a 10=year period for the depossesed owner to bring an
  2 10 action of ejectment.  See Carpenter v. Ruperto, 315 N.W.2d 782
  2 11 (Iowa 1982).  Code section 650.14 is also related to the
  2 12 equitable doctrine of acquiescence in which a property owner
  2 13 who allows a neighbor in good faith to assume a boundary line
  2 14 and build valuable improvements upon that land is estopped
  2 15 from complaining about any resulting encroachment.  See Ivener
  2 16 v. Cowan, 175 N.W.2d 121 (Iowa 1970).  In that case, the court
  2 17 noted that an action could be brought under Code chapter 650
  2 18 or under equity.
  2 19 LSB 1016XS 82
  2 20 da:nh/je/5