California Surveyors Forums

Developer "A", hires survey company Will B. Gone to prepare a tentative subdivision map that includes a portion of property to be relinquished by Cal-Trans.

Will and company are duly paid for their tentative map. Developer "A" decides to sell the property/ project and tentative map to developer "Puff D"

"Puff D" hires his own survey company and runs the project thru the Public agency with a condition that the ROW relinquishment must be finalized.

Cal-Tans decides NOT to relinquish the ROW.

"Puff D" is now suing Developer "A" and Will B. Gone for negligence, because he has lost a portion of the project.

Puff D's Survey company, submitted Will B.'s tentative map as part of their pkg.

Are there any statutes that will protect "Will B." ?

Take a look at this recent thread on copyright infringement Good:

http://www.californiasurveyors.org/clsa ... =copyright

Not sure how the CalTrans property was included in the tentative map boundary without their consent. Did the Assessor show it as a separate tax parcel? Did CalTrans sign the tentative map application? How could Developer A sell property that was not his, or was it subject to an easement benefiting CalTrans?

The only info I can figure, about the Cal-Trans property, was that there was an alledged relinquishment agreement, complete with plat, that was given to Developer A and subsequently his surveyor. (Will B. )

How ever in the heck, the tentative map DIDNT indicate the property owners of each involved parcel, is beyond me.

As far as the "Selling" of the project, I think developer "sold" the project under the guise that there would be 4 buildable parcels. Truely, he only SOLD the property that he owned. (musta made indication of the pending relinquishment to Developer B).

The Second Survey company, and HIS Developer, just grabbed the tentative from Will B. and ran with it.

Personally I believe that a lawsuit , if any, would be between Developer A and Developer B. What does Surveyor [Will B. Gone] have to do with this project ? Wouldnt the second survey company or the new developer assume responsibility for the tentative map and its content ?

Or. . . . . Does Will B. still have an interest in content because his name and logo show up on the tentative map that was submitted and conditionally approved ?

Perhaps the agreement with Caltrans includes the right to transfer "rights herein" to a third party? It looks like this is a contract issue between Dev B against Dev A, for failure to disclose or misrepresentation.

Will B. Gone has liability, if someone can look at the TM and mistakenly think the CT row was already owned by Dev A.

And of course, anyone can sue anyone for anything. :(

I'm not sure about whether the first surveyor is liable in any way whatsoever, but just the fact that the project is now in the hands of a new surveyor doesn't 'wipe the hands clean' of the first surveyor for work that he did while he was in responsible charge. You may want to take a look at Board Rules section 404.2 (California Code of Regulations) regarding responsible charge and 'successors'.

404.2 (2010 Board Rules [CCR])

" (d) ...
Except as provided in Section 8761.2 of the Code, the original licensee is not relieved of any responsibility arising from the land surveying services of which he or she was in responsible charge. "


John S. Coffey, PE
San Diego, CA

This Situation, is very un nerving in so far as thinking about how much "quasi" advice we emote over the telephone and in person,to clients often based upon a smidgeon of info that they provide.

Our personal company policy is to do a bit of research on a property then return a call to the client later that day or the next.

In Will B. Gones situation, it may have behooved him well, to do some investigation on the property and also check with Cal Trans as to any ultimate Right-of-way proposals by them. [all of us should have an email contact to cal-trans]

This scerario can apply to any adjacent rights-of-way, such as RR tracks, county roads etc.

It looks as if Will B. needs to rely heavily on his attorney.
ALSO, it appears that the NEW Surveyor is in the same situation, having made representation to HIS client that Will B's tentative map is correct.

In slow times, there is a desire to jump on every phone call and every survey that is heard about. Sometimes it is wiser to step back and take a good look even if the job is awarded to others.