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PLSS Section Subdivision Descriptions It is required by s.59.73, Wis Stats that a section or smaller subdivision of land established by the United States survey must be subdivided according to the statutes of the United States and the rules and regulations made by the secretary of the interior in conformity thereto; often called the federal rule. Therefore, it is interpreted that any land description calling for a fractional part of any PLSS section or subdivision thereof must be protracted upon the basis of aliquot partition according to such Federal rules in Wisconsin and not upon the basis of area quantity or proportionment. Perhaps the following Wisconsin Supreme Court decision in 31 Wis 142 best established the foregoing legal principle; even when an area call was included in the description: "A conveyance of the east 1/2 of a certain 1/4-1/4 section of land, containing 20 acres according to the government survey, conveys the whole of the described subdivision as determined by the monuments established by the original survey, whatever may be the actual quantity of land therein." U.S. land patents have also been issued upon the basis of half sections, whereby the Federal rules apply which subdivide the section into its aliquot fractional parts, regardless of the area quantities resulting therefrom. For non-sectionalized land parcels created by a record deed, survey plat or map, subsequent to the United States survey, it has been precedented by boundary law, or state rule, that the term one-half implies partition by equal area; however, in many cases the primary difficulty encountered is the fixation of the dividing line, unless specifically described. Obviously, if equal area or quantity is to be controlling in any land description it must be specifically asserted in writing in order to express the underlying intent of the title transfer. W. Rohde, RLS 841 |
