The Curt Brown Chronicles
The Writings and Lectures of Curtis M. Brown, Professional Land Surveyor - Edited and Compiled by Michael J. Pallamary, PLS
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'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes">Mike Pallamary and I had been ruminating over past San Diego County’s surveying history, and as a result we prepared a little booklet entitled San Diego County Surveying History and Experiences. He and many others have often asked how come that I, a non-lawyer, wrote books on the legal elements of Land Surveying? So I will give a brief explanation. I knew nothing about it and became curious. I read Clark’s book on the legal elements of surveying in Michigan, mostly a treatise on the sectionalized land system. Also Hodgeman and Skelton, both good but not filling the needs for California. . . Going back a bit, in 1925, at the time I was a junior in High School, I took a commercial law class from an attorney. He assigned me the task of reporting to the class the common law of a prize fighting situation. The only instruction he gave was to go down to the County Law Library and ask the librarian how to find the information. So I did. My partial knowledge of how to do legal research then slumbered in my background until I had need for it sometime later when surveying.
After World War II I got a job as a Chief of Party for a surveyor who was just starting up. Unfortunately, I knew almost nothing about the legal elements of boundary surveys and my boss knew slightly more.
I was just as confused as the little boy was who lost his chewing gum on the henhouse floor. Each morning I was handed a bundle of maps with a minimum of instructions and was told to monument the land described in a deed. But I had one advantage, when I got in trouble I would spend the evening at the Law Library soothing my ignorance in legal books. Eventually I got enough information together to publish my first book on Boundary Control for Surveyors of California. The book was such a success that I got the notion to put out one for the entire United States. It was an immediate good seller.
The subject of the legal elements of boundary location was not taught in colleges prior to about 1960; there was no suitable text available. As a result of my text, we now see many colleges offering classes in Boundary Control. In the eastern United States, where the sectionalized land system is unknown, the text was not exactly applicable, so I asked Walter Robillard and Donald Wilson to add in their thinking. Like in a nudist camp, we aired our differences. The principle difference between eastern law and western law lies in the order of importance of distance and bearing. In California, by statute law, distance when in conflict with direction is always considered as more important than direction, whereas in New England and other east coast states the reverse is generally true.
Personally I was lucky to start private surveying practice at the close of the world war; many of the old time surveyors were still alive, and I was able to find out how little they knew about the legal elements of land surveying. If any of you were around in the twenties, there was the great depression starting in 1929 and ending after the Second World War about 1947. During these 18 years almost no new Licensed Surveyors were added to the ranks; there was no need for them because of the scarcity of work. Also those that came into the profession prior to the depression were getting quite old. Bill Rumsey, John Covert, Will King, [David] Loebenstein and other [local surveyors] were in their sunset years. At least I got to talk to them about their surveying problems and experiences. To me the saddest chapter in the history of surveying was when 5,000 plus were grandfathered in the Civil Engineer’s act and given the right to practice their ignorance of surveying on the general public. I have a number of horror stories written. While I have never killed anyone, I have read several obituaries with pleasure . . .
Of course, after a few publication successes and a fairly good practice I started to feel my oats and swelling up rather than growing. Deflation soon arrived. One day my wife and I were headed for a convention and I had a flat tire adjoining some large institution. There was this fellow looking out from a solid locked gate; obviously an inmate in an asylum. I jacked the wheel up, took off the hub cap, took off the wheel nuts and set them in the hubcap, pulled the wheel off and stepped back on the edge of the hub cap. The hubcap
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About the Book
Curtis M. Brown has long been recognized as the world’s foremost authorities on land surveying. His works and textbooks are found in virtually every Land Surveyor’s library across the country. His legal principles have been adopted by a large number of courts across the United States and his books are standard reference works for practicing Land Surveyors. The Curt Brown Chronicles presents a collection of papers, lectures, and articles prepared by Mr. Brown in the course of developing the principles and authorities for his textbooks and classes. While serving as a member of the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM), Mr. Brown was a regular contributor to The Surveyor and Law and the Comment and Discussion columns as well as other important articles. In this capacity, Mr. Brown would respond to inquiries from Land Surveyors across the United States on a variety of subjects related to land surveying and the application of relevant law. His opinions continue to have considerable influence on the professional land surveying community and the legal community. Many of the papers contained in The Curt Brown Chronicles have not been released since their original publication in the 1950s and 1960s. Nevertheless, the subjects are still germane and in many ways, Curt’s focus on many subjects was prescient. Mr. Brown’s articles on Land Surveyor’s Liability to Unwritten Rights, Land Surveyors Ethics, and The Professional Status of Land Surveyors, are still considered relevant and are held in as high a regard as is Justice Thomas Cooley’s (Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Michigan, 1864-1885) famous article, The Judicial Functions of Surveyors. The Curt Brown Chronicles has been compiled with the consent and permission of ACSM and the Brown family
About the Author
Michael Pallamary is a Professional Land Surveyor with offices in La Jolla, California. He began his career in Boston, Massachusetts in 1971 and he has been surveying real property since then. After relocating to San Diego in 1976, Mr. Pallamary formed, owned and operated a 12-person land surveying firm for many years. He has served as an Expert Witness in numerous cases across the State of California and he has testified in some of the largest civil lawsuits filed in Southern California courts. His extensive testimonies and opinions have been offered in many jurisdictions as well as in federal court.
Mr. Pallamary is the author of Lay of the Land - The History of Land Surveying in San Diego County and he is the co-author is The History of San Diego Land Surveying Experiences with Curtis M. Brown as well as the co-author of Advanced Land Descriptions with Roy Minnick and Paul Cuomo. Mr. Pallamary is also the author of numerous articles published in an assortment of professional journals and magazines. He is frequently called upon as a guest lecturer. Mr. Pallamary is certified by the State Bar of California to teach courses providing continuing education credit to California attorneys.
In the late 1970s, while attending classes at Mesa College in San Diego, Mr. Pallamary became acquainted with the works of Curtis Brown. The two soon became close friends and together, they researched many of the cases discussed and analyzed by Mr. Brown in the development of his two textbooks, Boundary Control and Legal Principles and Evidence and Procedures for Boundary Location, published by John Wiley & Sons.
Mr. Pallamary lives in San Diego with his wife Maureen. They have two sons and two grandchildren. His son Justin is a licensed Land Surveyor.