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 
     8.0 New York 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. The Pennsylvania CLE Board has approved this course for 6.5 Substantive CLE hours for attorneys. 

The Pennsylvania Insurance Department has approved this seminar for 8.0 general continuing educations credits, intended 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.

HalfMoon Education Inc. is certified by the New York State CLE Board as an Accredited Provider of CLE programs. This traditional format course offers 8.0 CLE hours, consisting 8.0 Areas of Professional Practice hours, which are appropriate for experienced attorneys.

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, LLC

Ms. 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.