Metes and bounds
A metes and bounds description defines a parcel by running its perimeter: a direction and a distance for each course, from a fixed starting point, back to where it began.
Metes are the measurements. Bounds are the boundaries and reference points.
How one reads#
Beginning at a defined point of beginning — typically tied to a monument or a section corner — then a sequence of courses:
North 89 degrees 15 minutes East, 264.00 feet; thence South 0 degrees 45 minutes East, 330.00 feet; and so on, until the courses return to the point of beginning.
Closure#
The essential property.
Following every course in order must return exactly to the starting point, enclosing a definite area.
A description that does not close describes no definite parcel. That is a genuine title defect. It is not a typographical matter to be interpreted around, and it generally requires a corrective instrument or, where the parties are gone, a court proceeding.
Surveyors and title examiners check closure as a matter of routine, which is one of the things a survey exception on a title commitment is standing in for.
Monuments beat measurements#
Where a description references a physical monument and a measurement that conflict, the monument generally controls.
The reasoning is that the parties intended the corner to be at the iron pipe; the distance was an attempt to describe where the pipe is. The pipe is the better evidence of intention.
That principle resolves a great many old boundary disputes and it is why locating original monuments matters so much on rural land.
Where it is used#
Unplatted land, which is most rural Minnesota acreage.
Irregular parcels that do not correspond to any neat division.
Portions of larger tracts — a strip taken for a road, a corner conveyed to a neighbour, an easement area.
Why it produces problems#
Length. A long description copied between documents accumulates transcription errors, and a single dropped course destroys closure.
Ambiguity in old descriptions. References to fences, trees, stones and "the old road" were adequate when written and are frequently unresolvable now.
Cumulative error. Each course carries measurement error, and errors compound around a perimeter.
On any purchase where the description is metes and bounds and the boundaries matter, a survey is the answer rather than an optional extra — and it is what allows a survey exception to be removed from a title commitment.