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PLSO Issue 2 2015 March April

Cranky adjoiners, vexatious attorneys, and how I learned to love the Right-of-Entry Law „ Lee Spurgeon, PLS A rather belligerent neighbor of one of my clients called to rake me over the coals for having the audacity to approach and maybe even cross her property line in order to determine where the common boundary line was actually located. It took a while for her to get to my favorite part of this particular genre of phone harangues… Her: What gives you the right to enter my property? (Author’s note: This is just all too easy when it comes to this point in the conversation.) Me: The Oregon State Legislature gives me the right. True story. Check out ORS 672.047. It is called the Oregon Right-of-Entry Law! Her: Well, my two pit bulls trump your stupid law. Me: That is all too true. Perhaps we need to bring the sheriff along to ensure our lawful passage through your property so that we can determine where your property line is. That is where the conversation usually ends. Who wants the sheriff snooping around their backyard? They may accidently discover the shallow graves, your meth lab, your illegal grow farm, the shed you built without a permit, or maybe sheriffs just give some people the willies (thankfully). And it isn’t like I didn’t have some sympathy for the adjoining property owner. She did chop down a dozen 50-inch diameter fir trees along the property line and it turned out that several of the trees were on my client’s property. Some people just seem bound and determined to ignore my father’s advice: “Measure twice, cut once!” I realize the Oregon Right-of-Entry Law has come under fire in the last year or two and I have patiently listened to the arguments against the law, but I want to openly come out of the closet, so to speak, and let every surveyor in the state know that I am in love with the Right-of-Entry Law. Yes, you heard that right. The law is a carefully crafted piece of legislation which has a certain genius to it. I will actively oppose any and all efforts to alter the law. Does it require a little bit of extra work? Maybe, but going to the emergency room to pull shotgun pellets out of your behind may also slow down productivity. Of course, if you The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 38, No. 2, 2015 10 follow the procedures spelled out by the Right-of-Entry Law, you will not be trespassing and the adjoining property owners have a much higher duty of care to ensure your protection. For example, they would have a positive duty to call off their dogs, cage the bull, or warn you about the pit trap they dug in the back corner of their property as a homework project for their survivalist training class. I deal with a lot of boundary disputes in my practice, and I could guarantee that several of the jobs where I have found a resolution would have been impossible without the Right-of-Entry Law. Furthermore, I also believe that the Right-of-Entry Law adds just a bit of professionalism and legitimacy to every survey I do. “I want to openly come out…and let every surveyor in the state know that I am in love with the right-of-entry law.” If you have been involved in more than a couple knockdown donnybrooks, fracases, neighborly feuds, spats, fights, or kerfuffles, you will soon realize that there are bad actors who really do not want you to determine where the boundary line is located, so they can and will forbid you from entering their property to search for monuments or even to reach over a fence to tie their monuments. They can back up their wishes that you don’t tie their monuments with a firearm, the threat of physical violence, or a slobbering, underfed Rottweiler. Without the Right-of- Entry Law, what possible recourse would you have? Exactly none. How legitimate would your survey be if you didn’t have access to the best available evidence (the monuments) as to the true boundary corners? Not very legitimate at all. Could you call the Sheriff to ensure that you are allowed to perform your duties as a professional surveyor if you are asking the Sheriff to condone and sanction an unlawful trespass onto a private citizen’s property? You could call, but the Sheriff won’t be making an appearance, except maybe to arrest you. And while we are talking about legitimacy, how can the Right-of-Entry Law help legitimize your surveys? RIGHT-OF-ENTRY LAW


PLSO Issue 2 2015 March April
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