Legal Definitions - lappage

In property law, lappage refers to a situation where two or more different property owners hold legal documents, such as deeds or grants, that describe their respective land boundaries in such a way that a portion of their properties appears to overlap. This creates a conflict or interference regarding who legally owns that specific, disputed section of land. Essentially, it's a boundary dispute where the legal descriptions themselves, rather than just physical markers, are in conflict.

• Example 1: Conflicting Historical Surveys
  Imagine two adjacent farms, owned by the Miller family and the Johnson family, whose properties were originally surveyed and deeded in the late 1800s. The Miller family's deed describes their eastern boundary as "running along the old stone wall to the north," while the Johnson family's deed describes their western boundary as "following the creek bed until it meets the old oak tree." Over the decades, the stone wall partially crumbled, and the creek naturally shifted its course. When both families decide to sell their land and new surveys are commissioned, the surveyors interpret the original vague descriptions differently. One survey places the boundary along the current creek path, while the other places it where the stone wall *used to be*, resulting in a 15-foot wide strip of land being claimed by both deeds. This overlapping claim, stemming from the conflicting legal descriptions, is a lappage.

• Example 2: Overlapping Subdivision Lots
  A developer purchases a large tract of land to create a new residential subdivision. The developer then divides this tract into multiple individual lots and sells them. Due to an error in the initial surveying or platting process, the legal description for Lot 5 specifies its eastern boundary extends 100 feet from a certain marker, while the legal description for the adjacent Lot 6 specifies its western boundary begins 95 feet from the *same* marker, effectively causing a 5-foot overlap in the recorded property lines for these two lots. When the owners of Lot 5 and Lot 6 attempt to build fences or develop their properties, they discover that both their deeds lay claim to the same 5-foot strip of land. This discrepancy in the recorded boundaries constitutes a lappage.

• Example 3: Competing Government Grants
  Consider a situation in a historical context where a state government issued a land grant to a pioneer family in the early 19th century, describing a large parcel of undeveloped land. Decades later, a different government agency, unaware of the previous grant or due to poor record-keeping, issues a separate grant for a "newly surveyed" tract of land to a railroad company. When modern mapping techniques are applied to both historical grants, it is discovered that the legal description of the railroad company's grant includes a significant portion of the land previously granted to the pioneer family. Both grants, being official legal documents, create a conflicting claim over the same physical territory. This overlap in the land claims from two distinct grants is an example of lappage.