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Terms Used In 6 Guam Code Ann. § 8204

  • Case law: The law as laid down in cases that have been decided in the decisions of the courts.
  • Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
  • Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
The following are the rules for construing the descriptive part of a conveyance of real property, when the construction is doubtful and there are no other sufficient circumstances to determine it:

1. Where there are certain definite and ascertained particulars in the description, the addition of others which are indefinite, unknown or false, does not frustrate the conveyance, but it is to be construed by the first mentioned particulars.

2. When permanent and visible or ascertained boundaries or monuments are inconsistent with the measurement, either of lines, angles or surfaces, the boundaries or monuments are paramount.

3. Between different measurements which are inconsistent with each other, that of angles is paramount to that of surfaces, and that of lines paramount to both.

4. When a road, or the stream of water not navigable, is the boundary, the right of the grantor to the middle of the road or the thread of the stream are included in the conveyance, except where the road or thread of stream is held under another title.
5. When a road or stream of water is contained within the boundaries of the land in question, the rights of the grantor to the road or to the land underneath the stream of water are included in the conveyance, except where the road or land under the stream is held under another title.

6. When tide water is the boundary, the rights of the grantor to ordinary high-water mark are included in the conveyance.
7. When the description refers to a map, and that reference is inconsistent with other particulars, it controls them if it appears that the parties acted with reference to the map, otherwise the map is subordinate to other definite and certain particulars.

SOURCE: CCP § 2077 modified.

COMMENT: See Attorney General Opinion CV80-2-1212 (2-25-80). This Opinion determined that Guam law in existence as of that time did not define the rights of private owners vs. the Government concerning land that runs under a stream which is non-navigable. After examining case law, the Attorney General determined that the owner of such land is the person whose land encompasses the course of the stream.

Compare 21 Guam Code Ann. § 1202 and 21 Guam Code Ann. § 9202 of the Civil Code relative to ownership under navigable streams and adjacent to tidal waters. See also 21 Guam Code Ann. § 3

COL120106
6 Guam Code Ann. EVIDENCE
DIV. 2 PRINCIPLES OF EVIDENCE
CH. 8 THE EFFECT OF EVIDENCE

64105 confirming government ownership of land below the high-water or high-tide level. .

This Section was used for defining land questions because it was amended prior to the codification of Title 21 of this Code as the place for land issues. Note that all of this Title 6 was a positive enactment by the Guam Legislature..