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Rules of Construction: Legal Boundaries

By Jeff N. Lucas, JD, PLS, Esq.

What are the Rules of Construction, and why Other jurisdictions always allow extrinsic evidence in
do we need to know about them? The Rules of to explain the conveyance and the interpretation of the
Construction are court-made rules that have been deed description if there is a controversy. This is for
developed over the centuries for the interpretation the simple fact that the act of describing on paper the
of legal documents. The courts use them when the location of dirt that exists on the ground is born in
interpretation of a document is confusing, ambiguity and imbued with uncertainty.
uncertain, ambiguous, or in conflict. Legal descriptions have been written by all
The rules were probably first manner of people with or without the
developed to help interpret necessary skills to do so, and with or
the English common law without surveying information to aid the
as handed down by the process. This may or may not have given
King’s Bench and later to rise to the de minimus rule—de minimus
interpret the law as it became more codified. Today the courts non curate lex—the law does not concern itself with trivialities.
use the rules to interpret legislation and other codified law, Surveyors, on the other hand, always want to know “how close
along with contracts and other legal documents such as deeds. is close enough?” The courts never ask that question because
For our discussion, we are primarily focused on the legal it’s irrelevant.
description contained within a deed. If nothing else, the The number one rule for the interpretation of deeds is to find the
retracement surveyor should be an expert at interpreting legal intent of the grantor and (as some courts have said) to a lesser
descriptions and the rules are essential to that endeavor. extent the grantee. In other words, intent is king but if intent is
Deeds and contracts have many similarities, but they are treated king then ambiguities are the keys to the kingdom. When the
differently when being interpreted by the courts. Contracts, intent of the conveyance is confusing, uncertain, ambiguous, or
for example and as a general rule, are strictly construed. This, in conflict, extrinsic evidence and the rules for construing the
in and of itself, is a rule of construction. The words will be words used must be employed to solve the conflict.
given their plain meaning and extrinsic evidence (things that To my knowledge, there is no exhaustive list of all the Rules
exist outside the four corners of the document), such as parol of Construction, but they often arise in boundary dispute
evidence, will not be considered. The courts seem to pride cases, and some of them are already familiar to you. Our
themselves on interpreting contracts and will not let the parties so-called “superiority of calls” are simply court-made Rules
to the transaction tell the court what they think the contract of Construction (i.e., natural monuments are superior to
terms mean if the court can figure it out on its own vis-a-vie artificial monuments which are superior to bearings distances
the Rules of Construction. and acreage). Just because a deed does not close doesn’t mean

Deeds, on the other hand, are liberally construed. In some it can’t be surveyed. There’s a rule for that as well. In my next
jurisdictions a conservative approach is first taken, but if there column we will consider that rule and a few others.
is an ambiguity that is encountered then extrinsic evidence will About the Author:
be allowed to help with the interpretation. This is where we Jeff Lucas is an attorney and land surveyor
learn of the two types of ambiguity. The first and most obvious in private practice in Birmingham, AL. He
is a “patent ambiguity,” on the face of it the deed is ambiguous. is an author, columnist, lecturer, seminar
An example would be a description that doesn’t close giving presenter, and continuing education provider.
rise to more than one interpretation.
His monthly newsletter, The Lucas Letter, deals with legal issues
The other type of ambiguity is referred to as a “latent and the practice of surveying. More information can be found at
ambiguity,” not existing within the deed itself. A latent www.lucasandcompany.com
ambiguity often shows itself when there is an attempt to locate This article was reprinted with permission from Jeff Lucas and
the property on the ground through surveying activity and the XYHT Magazine. The original publication can be found at
ambiguity is encountered, thus ushering in extrinsic evidence https://www.xyht.com/education/rules-of-construction/.
to explain or solve the ambiguity. In many cases parol evidence
is the determining factor, but all too often it is ignored by the
retracement surveyor.

EMPIRE STATE SURVEYOR / VOL. 59 • NO 1/ 2023 • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 17