STATE OF FLORIDA, DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES, ET AL., APPELLANTS,
v.
BRONSONS, INC., A FLORIDA CORPORATION, APPELLEE
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The Florida court held that under the Marketable Record Title Act, titles with roots over 30 years old can extinguish state sovereignty claims even to submerged lands, and that original federal surveyor findings are conclusive and cannot be contradicted by modern expert affidavits regarding historical navigability.
The MRTA can extinguish state sovereignty claims to unmeandered lands when title has roots 30+ years old. Original federal surveyor findings and their field notes and plats are conclusively correct and cannot be contradicted or 'corrected' in court proceedings. An affidavit from a modern state land planner is incompetent evidence to contradict the government surveyor's historical determinations and cannot create a genuine factual issue to defeat summary judgment.
[1] The Marketable Record Title Act can extinguish claims of state sovereignty to lands under meandered waters if the root of title is thirty or more years old prior to the 1…
[2] Findings and acts of the original United States Government Surveyor, as shown by field notes and plats, are conclusively deemed correct and are not subject to judicial co…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“As to land titles with roots of title that were thirty or more years old prior to the 1978 amendment to the Marketable Record Title Act (MRTA), section 712.02 et seq., Florida Statutes, that act can extinguish the claim of state sovereignty even to lands under meandered waters and can perfect title thereto in a private owner.”
Establishes the core holding that MRTA can eliminate state sovereignty claims to submerged lands when title has sufficient roots in time.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceThe case involved lands in Florida that were unmeandered (not marked as water on original government surveys). The Department of Natural Resources cha…
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
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COWART, Judge.
As to land titles with roots of title that were thirty or more years old prior to the 1978 amendment to the Marketable Record Title Act (MRTA), section 712.02 et seq., Florida Statutes, that act can extinguish the claim of state sovereignty even to lands under meandered waters and can perfect title thereto in a private owner. See Askew v. Sonson, 409 So. 2d 7 (Fla. 1982); Odom v. Deltona Corp., 341 So. 2d 977 (Fla.1976); Board of Trustees v. Paradise Fruit Co., 414 So. 2d 10 (Fla. 5th DCA 1982), review denied, 432 So. 2d 37 (Fla.1983); State, Dept. of Natural Resources v. Contemporary Land Sales, Inc., 400 So. 2d 488 (Fla. 5th DCA 1981); Coastal Petroleum Co. v. American Cyanamid, 454 So. 2d 6 (Fla. 2d DCA 1984); Sawyer v. Modrall, 286 So. 2d 610 (Fla. 4th DCA 1973), cert. denied, 297 So. 2d 562 (Fla. 1974); Starnes v. Marcon Inv. Group, 571 F. 2d 1369 (5th Cir.1978).
In this case the lands in question were unmeandered. The findings and acts of the original United States Government Surveyor (the cadastral engineer of the federal Bureau of Land Management), as shown by his field notes and plats, are official acts of the executive branch of the federal sovereign and were intended to be, and are, conclusively deemed correct. The government surveyor was under a duty to ascertain all permanent natural navigable waters constituting sovereignty lands and to meander them so as to identify them and distinguish them for all time from lands of other character. His findings and acts in this particular, like his other findings and acts, are not subject to examination and “correction” in courts of law. Correction of the original governmental survey must be made, if at all, by a resurvey commissioned by the same authority as was the original survey. The opinion in an affidavit of a present day land planner employed by the Department of Natural Resources of the state is incompetent evidence to contradict the facts established by the government surveyor’s field notes and plat as to the navigability of water on March 3, 1845, when Florida became a state, and is legally insufficient to create a genuine factual issue and to avoid summary judgment even if MRTA did not apply.
AFFIRMED.
COBB, C.J., and ORFINGER, J., concur.
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Denson v. J.E. Stack, Jr., 997 F.2d 1356 (11th Cir. 1993)…s Hammock. . R8-11-12. . Joint Exh. 132. . Joint Exh. 84 at 3 and 7. . See text accompanying notes 22 and 23. . Plaintiff's Exh. 9, Exh. B. . R4-38-39. . R6-32. . R5-165. .See State of Florida, Department of Natural Resources v. Bronsons, Inc., 469 So. 2d 214, 215 (Fla.App. 5 Dist.1985) (“The government survey- or was under a duty to ascertain all permanent natural navigable waters constituting sovereignty lands and to meander them so as to identify them and distinguish them for all time from lands of ot…
Authorities Cited
- Odom v. The Deltona Corp., 341 So. 2d 977 (Fla. 1976)
- Sawyer v. Modrall, 286 So. 2d 610 (Fla. 4th DCA 1973)
- State v. Contemporary Land Sales, Inc., 400 So. 2d 488 (Fla. 5th DCA 1981)
- Modrall v. Sawyer, 297 So. 2d 562 (Fla. 1974)
- Reubin O'D. Askew v. Sonson, 409 So. 2d 7 (Fla. 1981)
- Coastal Petroleum Co. v. Am. Cyanamid Co., 454 So. 2d 6 (Fla. 2d DCA 1984)
- Bd. OF Trs. OF the Internal Improvement Tr. Fund OF the State OF Fla. v. Paradise Fruit Co., Inc., 414 So. 2d 10 (Fla. 5th DCA 1982)
- Bd. OF Trs. OF the Internal Improvement Tr. Fund OF the State OF Fla. v. Paradise Fruit Co., Inc., 432 So. 2d 37 (Fla. 1983)
- Starnes v. Marcon Inv. Grp., 571 F.2d 1369 (5th Cir. 1978)