Fowler v. Tarbet, 32808
| Decision Date | 28 September 1954 |
| Docket Number | No. 32808,32808 |
| Citation | 45 Wn.2d 332,274 P.2d 341 |
| Court | Washington Supreme Court |
| Parties | Ben L. FOWLER and Ward H. Fowler, Appellants, v. Edward B. TARBET and Ethel P. Tarbet, husband and wife, James M. Simonson and Lillian Simonson, husband and wife; Richard MacAteer and Clara MacAteer, husband and wife; Ralph W. Heberling and Myrtle Heberling, husband and wife, Respondents. |
Geo Numata, Spokane, G. E. Lovell, Stevenson, for appellants.
Dressel & Lehan, Spokane, for respondents.
This is an action to establish a boundary between two tracts of land, both abutting on Diamond Lake, Pend Oreille county, Washington. The Fowlers, plaintiffs, derived title to their tract under a deed wherein the land description reads:
'8.95 acres lying and being in the N.W. corner of Lot 9 in Section 1, Township 30 North, Range 44, E.W.M., being 2 acres in width (east and west), bounded on the north by Diamond Lake, and on the west by the west line of Section 1.'
The Tarbets, defendants, derived title to their tract under a deed wherein the land description reads 'Lot 9 in Section 1, Township 30, Range 44, E.W.M., Excepting Therefrom one certain piece of land containing 8.95 acres, heretofore sold and conveyed to Lillie M. Fowler.'
The Fowlers contend that the reference in the deed (particularly in the deed first mentioned above) to quantity, that is, the reference to 8.95 acres, is controlling as against other references contained in the deed to metes and bounds. They urge, particularly, that the latter are indefinite, incomplete, and not adequate to fix the east (north to south) boundary of their tract, which is the west boundary of the Tarbets' tract.
The Tarbets contend to the contrary, emphasizing the reference in the deed (first mentioned above), reading: '* * * being 2 acres in width (east and west),' and urging that this reference to or use of the term acre, as a unit of lineal measurement, can and must be given meaning; that the reference is definite and adequate when considered in terms of square acres, which are 208.7 feet per side; that two acres in width (east and west) is a definite lineal measurement and fixes the boundary between the two tracts on a line 417.4 feet east of and parallel to the west line of Lot 9 in Section One, Township 30, North, Range 44, E.W.M.
If the east boundary of the Fowlers' tract is determined to be 417.4 feet from their west boundary (and parallel thereto), this would give them 7.97 acres instead of 8.95 acres, mentioned in the deeds. Obviously this resolution of the problem rests upon an assumption that the reference to '2 acres in width (east and west),' is a definite measurement and is adequate as a significant and controlling part of an effective metes and bounds description, which, as a whole, is controlling as against the quantity reference of 8.95 acres.
It is the general rule that a metes and bounds description in a conveyance of real estate is controlling as against a conflicting quantity description. When there is a disagreement between the two, the metes and bounds description is construed as it it stood alone and the quantity description is treated as surplusage. McIrwin v. Charlebois 38 Wash. 151, 80 P. 285. That portion of the metes and...
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Newport Yacht Basin Ass'n of Condo. Owners v. Supreme Nw., Inc.
...meaning to every word if reasonably possible.” Hodgins v. State, 9 Wash.App. 486, 492, 513 P.2d 304 (1973) (citing Fowler v. Tarbet, 45 Wash.2d 332, 334, 274 P.2d 341 (1954)). It has long been the rule of our state that, where the plain language of a deed is unambiguous, extrinsic evidence ......
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Newport Yacht Basin Ass'n of Condo. Owners v. Supreme Northwest, Inc.
...meaning to every word if reasonably possible." Hodgins v. State, 9 Wn. App. 486, 492, 513 P.2d 304 (1973) (citing Fowler v. Tarbet, 45 Wn.2d 332, 334, 274 P.2d 341 (1954)). It has long been the rule of our state that, where the plain language of a deed is unambiguous, extrinsic evidence wil......
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Estate of Little, Matter of
...See generally Annot., Ancestral Character of Property Which Came to Intestate by Deed, 122 A.L.R. 820 (1939).39 Fowler v. Tarbet, 45 Wash.2d 332, 334, 274 P.2d 341 (1954).40 Hodgins v. State, 9 Wash.App. 486, 492, 513 P.2d 304 (1973).41 Hirt v. Entus, 37 Wash.2d 418, 428, 224 P.2d 620 (1950......
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Rye v. Baumann, 5-1928
...be argued that 'three fourth acres' is not a unit of lineal measure but it has been used in that respect. In the case of Fowler v. Tarbet, 45 Wash.2d 332, 274 P.2d 341, the court had before it a deed containing the description '2 acres in width'. It was there held that '2 acres in width' is......