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.
(a) Proportioning. Proportioning is a method of last resort for re-establishing a corner that is genuinely lost — that is, one whose original position cannot be recovered from any surviving physical evidence or reliable testimony. It is not used where an original monument is merely obliterated but recoverable. When two original monuments on the same line are found and the intervening corners are lost, any total excess or deficiency between the found monuments (measured now versus the record) is distributed proportionally among the intervening record intervals, so that each lot receives its record fraction of the whole. Single proportioning distributes along one line; double proportioning re-establishes an interior corner by proportioning in two directions from four controlling monuments.
(b) Priority of severance (seniority). Priority of severance applies where parcels were carved out of a larger tract at different times, and there is now an excess or deficiency to be absorbed. The rule is that the senior parcel — the one conveyed first — takes its full record dimension, and the junior parcel takes whatever remains (all the excess or all the shortfall). The grantor could only give the junior what was left after the senior conveyance, so the junior deed is inherently limited to the remainder. Seniority is therefore about the order of the conveyances, not about who found which monument.
