Agenda
Registration: 8:00 – 8:30 am
Morning Session: 8:30 – 11:45 am
Lunch (On your own): 11:45 am – 12:45 pm
Afternoon Session: 12:45 – 4:40 pm
Locating Land Boundaries on Paper (And on the Ground)
What a deed tells us about real property interests and their locations – or doesn’t
Common kinds of land descriptions in Pennsylvania:
• Metes and bounds
• Reference to a subdivision
• Reference to a tax parcel
• “Strip” descriptions
• 3-D descriptions (condominiums, split estates)
• Blanket easements
Reading a description to find evidence of location
The work involved in writing a description
Tying the paper deed to the ground: what is evidence of a boundary?
Why paper and ground may not match
When the paper and the ground don’t match: the hierarchy of evidence in descriptions
Summary: elements of a good description
Easements: Understanding Possessive Rights in Lands of Others
Distinctions between ownership and possession
Easements distinguished from other possessory rights
Types of easements and distinctions between them: appurtenant,
in gross, affirmative, negative and others
Methods of easement creation
Clues in documents to determine if interests are fee or easement
The effect of the Statute of Frauds on possessory rights
Methods of easement termination
What happens after termination?
Defining Trespass and Adverse Possession
Defining trespass
Distinctions between trespass, adverse possession, and prescriptive rights
Maintaining adverse claims
• Statute of limitations
• Elements of a claim
• “Lost grant” claims
• Quiet title actions
Understanding Riparian and Water Rights
The Public Trust Doctrine and riparian rights
Locating land boundaries near the water line
Determining access rights to surface waters
Determining rights to groundwater
Water-related regulations affecting land use and land ownership in Pennsylvania
Disputes: Boundaries, Shared Spaces, and Split Estates
An overview of methods to resolve disputes
Acquiescence, laches, estoppel, and equity
Less litigious approaches to settling land interest disputes
• Practical location and boundary line agreements
• Boundary line commissions
Split estates: surface versus subsurface rights
Examples of real-life disputes: causes and outcomes
Credits
Attorneys
6.5 Pennsylvania CLE Hours
Pennsylvania Title Insurance Producers
8.0 General CE Hours
Land Surveyors & Engineers
6.5 PDHs
Continuing Education Credit Information
This seminar is open to the public. Pennsylvania CLE Board has approved this seminar for 6.5 substantive CLE hours for attorneys.
The Pennsylvania Insurance Department has approved this seminar for 8.0 general continuing educations credits for title insurance producers.
This event offers 6.5 PDHs to Pennsylvania land surveyors and engineers. Educators and courses are not subject to preapproval in Pennsylvania.
Attendance will be monitored, and attendance certificates will be available after the seminar for most individuals who complete the entire event. Attendance certificates not available at the seminar will be mailed to participants within fifteen business days.
Speakers
Wendy Lathrop, PLS, CFM, CFS
President and Owner of Cadastral Consulting, LLCMs. Lathrop is licensed as a professional land surveyor in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, and as a professional planner in New Jersey. She holds a master’s degree in Environmental Policy and has been involved in surveying since 1974 in projects ranging from construction to boundary to environmental land use disputes. Ms. Lathrop is also a certified floodplain manager through the Association of State Flood Plain Managers (ASFPM) and a Certified Floodplain Surveyor through the New Jersey Society of Professional Land Surveyors. A former adjunct instructor at Mercer County College in New Jersey, she has also taught as part of the team for the licensing exam review course at Drexel University in Pennsylvania. Ms. Lathrop has been teaching seminars for surveyors since 1986 and has been writing articles for surveyors since 1983. She is a contributing editor for The American Surveyor magazine, and she has four articles included in the American Bar Association’s text, Land Surveys: A Guide for Lawyers and Other Professionals. She and Stephen V. Estopinal, PLS, PE co–authored a book titled Professional Surveyors and Real Property Descriptions: Composition, Construction, and Comprehension, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. in 2011. She is also on the faculty of GeoLearn, a web-based educational provider. Ms. Lathrop is a past president of the New Jersey Society of Professional Land Surveyors and of the National Society of Professional Surveyors, and she has served on the Board of Directors for the American Association for Geodetic Surveying.