S. E. Downey Registered Land Surveyor Case Summary
explanatory Essay
1300 words
The case comes from the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine. The parties involved were David and Katherine Graves and S.E. Downey Registered Land Surveyor, P.A. S.E. Downey is owned by Stephen Downey, a registered land surveyor and shareholder of the company. His son, Patrick, is an employee who helped on the Graves’ home project, under the supervision of his father. There are many errors that can occur when surveying a piece of land. When calculating measurements, it is very unlikely that any two measurements will ever be the same. There will most likely always be a degree of variance no matter how many different methods and types of equipment are used. In order to reduce the variance, the discrepancies need to be reduced in order to be as accurate …show more content…
S.E. Downey Registered Land Surveyor, P.A case, a surveying error was made by Patrick Downey where he measured too far into the Acadia National Park’s property line and as a result a $110,589 impact cost was charged to the Graves’ to move the construction of the home. The Graves family property is surrounded by the Acadia National Park on the North and East side. Their intentions were to divide their property into three lots and construct a house on the northern most part of the property. The contractor on the job recommended to use S.E. Downey to survey the land. The construction would include to install a septic system, drill a well, improve an existing road and provide power to the new home. Once construction had started on the Graves family property, a representative from the National Park Service informed the Graves family that the home was intruding into another property that the Acadia National Park had authority to prohibit construction in. As a result, the National Park Service informed the Graves’ that the potential home was north of their property line and needed to be relocated …show more content…
Downey did in fact falsely place the home on a piece of property that the Graves’ did not own. Their actions were a result of the Graves’ $110,589 damages. The Graves’ were given a full compensation of their damages plus interest and costs. After this conclusion was made, S.E. Downey appealed the decision and claimed there was not enough evidence to prove that the damages originated from negligence. They claimed that the Graves family did not provide enough information based on their property boundaries. S.E. Downey stated that the Graves’ failed to provide further information on the owners of their surrounding neighbors’ properties. They continued to exclaim that they were unaware that the Park owned the property where the home intruded on, and blamed the Graves’ for not providing them with the documents that the Park had authority to not allow construction on that piece of
In this essay, the author
- Explains that the case comes from the supreme judicial court of maine. the parties involved were david and katherine graves and stephen downey registered land surveyor, p.a.
- Explains that there are many errors that can occur when surveying a piece of land, and that the discrepancies must be reduced in order to be as accurate as possible.
- Explains the graves vs. s.e. downey registered land surveyor, p.a case, where a surveying error was made, resulting in an $110,589 impact cost.
- Explains that the case comes from the supreme judicial court of maine. the parties involved were david and katherine graves and stephen downey registered land surveyor, p.a.
- Explains that there are many errors that can occur when surveying a piece of land, and that the discrepancies must be reduced in order to be as accurate as possible.
- Explains the graves vs. s.e. downey registered land surveyor, p.a case, where a surveying error was made, resulting in an $110,589 impact cost.
- Explains that the graves family property is surrounded by acadia national park on the north and east side. the contractor recommended using s.e. downey to survey the land.
- Describes how the national park service informed the graves family that the potential home was intruding into another property that acadia had authority to prohibit construction in.
- Explains that the graves filed a claim against s.e. downey because of the unexpected impact cost to the construction of their home project.
- Explains that the court concluded that there were many errors in the downey survey work performed by patrick. the most noticeable error was the failure to acknowledge the northern boundary between the graves and the national park’s property.
- Explains that even with s.e. downey's documents, they breached their contract by not complying with their duty to perform and provide quality work of a surveyor.
- Explains that s.e. downey falsely placed the home on a piece of property that the graves' did not own. they appealed the decision and claimed there was not enough evidence to prove negligence.
- Explains that the court's evidence reaffirms that s.e. downey did in fact breach the contract and professional negligence.
- Explains that some states take a surveyor accountable and are held to the standard of conduct. other states follow the duty of care.
- Concludes that s.e. downey should have had another representative on site to show patrick the proper was to survey a land.
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