Also known as: boundary lines · boundary-line · property line · boundary
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
2 senses
A line demarcating the division between adjoining parcels of land. Possession or use extending across the line under a good-faith belief that it marks the true boundary supports tacking of successive periods to satisfy the statutory period for adverse possession.
A line demarcating the division between regulatory zones. The line is scrutinized for reasonableness and substantial relation to public welfare.
A line demarcating the division between adjoining parcels of land. Possession or use extending across the line under a good-faith belief that it marks the true boundary supports tacking of successive periods to satisfy the statutory period for adverse possession.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
A line demarcating the division between regulatory zones. The line is scrutinized for reasonableness and substantial relation to public welfare.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Each sense below has its own examples, sources, and questions.
Beatrice Brown and her predecessor maintained a fence and garden ten feet beyond the recorded deed line on land they believed was theirs. The neighbor never objected during the combined twenty-year period. The court permits tacking because the use was actual, open, exclusive, hostile under claim of right, and continuous, satisfying adverse possession despite the boundary error.
Blackwood Technologies maintains a sales office that solicits orders in the forum state. The court must decide whether those contacts cross the boundary line separating activities that subject the corporation to suit from those that do not. Because the office activities are systematic and continuous, the line is crossed and personal jurisdiction exists.
Bella Barnes ships cargo under a bill of lading containing a forum-selection clause. The carrier argues the clause places the dispute outside U.S. courts. The court examines whether the maritime boundary line between permissible contractual terms and those that violate public policy has been crossed by the clause.
When a claimant uses land beyond the true boundary under a good-faith belief that the line is correct, the possession remains hostile because it asserts a claim of right. The court allows tacking of successive periods to meet the statutory requirement.
Supporting sources
The boundary line separates activities that justify subjecting a corporation to jurisdiction from those that do not. Systematic and continuous contacts that cross the line satisfy due process even if the corporation is not physically present in the forum.
Supporting sources
Brookside Pharmaceuticals owns a parcel just inside a newly drawn zoning line that bars all commercial development. The restriction leaves the land with no economically viable use and bears no relation to health or safety. The court invalidates the boundary application because it arbitrarily deprives the owner of beneficial use without advancing a legitimate public purpose.
A zoning boundary or classification is invalid if it bears no substantial relation to public health, safety, or welfare and arbitrarily deprives the owner of all beneficial use of the land. Courts examine the reasonableness of the line as applied to the specific parcel.
Supporting sources
…Position of Foreign Corporations in American Constitutional Law, 94-95. It is evident that the criteria by which we mark the boundary line between those activities which justify the subjection of a corporation to suit, and those which do not, cannot be simply mechanical or quantitative. The test is not merely, as has sometimes…