18-Geom-B5 Survey Law · May 2014
Nivaar worked solution (AI-drafted; not reviewed by a licensed engineer)
National Exams — May 2014 — 04-Geom-B5 Survey Law. Three hours; CLOSED BOOK, NO CALCULATOR. Twelve questions constitute a complete paper (the first twelve as they appear are marked); most answers require sentence-and-paragraph format. All twelve questions are solved in full below. Content is framed in the Canadian common-law and Ontario land-registration context named by the source.
Reference texts: Survey Law in Canada (Canadian Council of Land Surveyors / Carswell, 1989); Brown, Robillard & Wilson, Brown's Boundary Control and Legal Principles (7th ed., Wiley, 2017); Ontario Land Surveyor educational materials and the Association of Ontario Land Surveyors (AOLS) Survey Review; the Land Titles Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. L.5, the Registry Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. R.20, the Surveys Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. S.30, and the Condominium Act, 1998, S.O. 1998, c. 19; Re Ellenborough Park, [1956] Ch. 131 (C.A.).
Question text not reproduced: the examination questions are © Engineers and Geoscientists BC. Open the official past paper (linked at the top of this page) to read the question, then follow the worked solution below.
Ontario's original township surveys were run under successive sets of Instructions, producing eighteen recognised survey systems that differ in which lines were actually run and where the original monuments were planted. The location of the original monuments matters enormously for retracement, because in each system only certain corners were physically marked and the rest must be re-established from those that were. Three of the systems are:
1. Single Front System. The concession lines and road allowances were run, and posts were planted only along the front of each concession (the lots were not blocked out at the rear). The lot corners exist as monuments on the front concession line; the side lines were intended to be run parallel from those front posts, and the rear of the lot was not originally monumented. Retracement therefore governs from the front-planted posts.
2. Double Front System. Posts were planted on both the front and the rear of each lot (the concession line at each end of the lot was monumented). The governing points for a lot therefore exist at both ends, and the side line is defined by joining the front and rear posts. This gives more control than the single-front system because each lot is bounded by original monuments at both ends.
3. Sectional System. The later "sectional" townships were laid out on a regular grid of sections (blocks of lots of a standard size, on the model of the western sectional surveys), with road allowances inserted at fixed intervals around the sections. Original monuments were set at the section and block corners on the grid, and the interior lots take their position from that framework. The regular, closed grid is the distinguishing feature. In Ontario the sectional townships took two principal forms: the 1,000-acre sectional system, in which each section between side roads held five 200-acre lots (about 20 × 100 chains), and the 1,800-acre sectional system, in which each section held nine 200-acre lots (about 30 × 66.67 chains). In both, only the concession lines and side-road allowances bounding the sections were run in the field, with posts planted along those run lines; the lot lines inside a section were never run and must be re-established from the posts on the surrounding allowances.
