WILLIAM E. JONES AND JANET M. JONES
v.
MARSHA C. MORRIS, ET AL
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Private property boundaries established by private surveyors through monuments and occupancy on the ground are not controlled by government section lines, and the state surveying department has no authority to determine private property rights or private ownership boundaries not adjoining public lands.
[1] Private property boundaries established by private surveyors through monuments and occupancy on the ground are not determined or controlled by government survey section l…
[2] The state surveying department lacks statutory authority to determine private property rights, private ownership boundaries not adjoining public lands, or the locations o…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“The lots in question are not government lots laid out by the original government surveyor to subdivide irregular government sections, as is sometimes done. These lots were laid out and created by a private surveyor[.] … [T]he lots in question were actually established by their own monuments and occupancy on the ground and the government section line and its location is immaterial to the proper inquiry as is the original government survey and field notes of the government survey locating the section line.”
Quotation from Tyson v. Edwards, 433 So. 2d 549, 553 (Fla. 5th DCA 1983), cited by the court to support its affirmance.
William E. Jones and Janet M. Jones appealed a circuit court decision regarding property boundary disputes involving Marsha C. Morris and others. The …
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DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA
FOURTH DISTRICT
WILLIAM E. JONES and JANET M. JONES, Appellants,
v.
MARSHA C. MORRIS, et al., Appellees.
No. 4D2024-0982
[June 25, 2025]
Appeal from the Circuit Court for the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, Palm Beach County; Carolyn R. Bell, Judge; L.T. Case No. 502020CA008140.
Patrick Dervishi of Shir Law Group, P.A., Boca Raton, for appellants.
Matthew J. McGuane of Levine Kellogg Lehman Schneider + Grossman, LLP, Miami, and Michael W. Kranz of Smith, Ball, Baez & Prather, Florida Injury Lawyers, Palm Beach Gardens, for appellees.
PER CURIAM.
Affirmed. See Tyson v. Edwards, 433 So. 2d 549, 553 (Fla. 5th DCA 1983) (“The lots in question are not government lots laid out by the original government surveyor to subdivide irregular government sections, as is sometimes done. These lots were laid out and created by a private surveyor[.] … [T]he lots in question were actually established by their own monuments and occupancy on the ground and the government section line and its location is immaterial to the proper inquiry as is the original government survey and field notes of the government survey locating the section line.”) (internal footnote omitted); Willis v. Campbell, 500 So. 2d 300, 303 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986) (“[T]he government survey in this case established only the corners of the section and did not establish the boundary between the two parcels of property in question.”); § 177.507(5), Fla. Stat. (2021) (“In order to provide a means to protect property owners and others concerned with matters of land titles and title insurance, the department has no authority under this act to determine private property rights, private ownership boundaries where these boundaries are not adjoining public lands, or locations of survey corners other than public land survey corners.”).
2
WARNER, GERBER and FORST, JJ., concur.
* * *
Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.