1924 - Mr. Cote Goes to the Senate       The 1924 Annual Meeting was comparatively quiet, but the note of optimism was still there. In his opening remarks, the President said “This year presents every appearance of being a turning point for the better in our Province. In many ways the surveyor, along with nearly all others, has been but marking time during the past several years. With the bountiful crop of the past year, a more promising immigration policy for the immediate future and a better outlook for the Province obtaining control of its natural resources, I feel we may look forward to better times in the not distant future.” Having succeeded in securing the appointment of an Alberta Land Surveyor to the Edmonton Land Titles Office, the Association was now pressing for a similar appointment at Calgary in succession to Mr. A.C. Talbot, who had retired in 1923. This aim was energetically pursued for some time afterwards and the support of the Law Society was sought, but eventually the Association came to realize that it would have little prospect of success in view of the effective work being done by Mr. J.C. Glenday who had been placed in charge of the surveys section of the Land Titles Office and who, in 1952 was made an honorary member of the Association in recognition of his services there. The year 1924 saw the elevation of the Hon. J.L. Cote to the Canadian Senate, as well as his unfortunate decease a few months later. The Association also created it first life member in the person of Mr. William Pearce, who had by then been active in surveying and related fields of work for 55 years. The matter which was then causing the Association its greatest concern was the question of adverse possession of land under The Statute of Limitations. The question essentially was whether a person who had been in uninterrupted occupancy of land of which he was not the registered owner for the twelve-year period specified in The Limitation of Actions Act could, under the Torrens system of land registration as exemplified by the provisions of The Land Titles Act, claim ownership of the land and obtain a certificate of title to it. There had been a number of inconclusive court decisions on that question, culminating in one made in 1921 in which the judge declared it as his opinion that twelve years of adverse possession that had not been disputed by the registered owner clearly extinguished that owner’s title and that the occupant of the land was entitled to ask the Court to declare his title to it and to procure a certificate of title to that effect. This judgment had apparently impressed the provincial government sufficiently to cause them to add to the Land Titles Act a provision to the effect that in such circumstances any person recovering a judgment against a registered owner by reason of adverse possession could file a copy of the judgment in the Land Titles Office and after a period of three months therefrom the Registrar, in the absence of any appeal from the judgment, was required to cancel the title of the registered owner according to the tenor of the judgment. This piece of legislation, although considered sound in principle by most members of the legal profession, was thought by most land surveyors to be a severe blow to the efficacy of the Torrens system of registration in Alberta. Mr. Pearce and the railway company surveyors were greatly alarmed by it, and cited many instances in which it could operate to the injury of registered owners. The railway companies seemed to be especially susceptible because in many places they had not been too meticulous about building their tracks along the centre line of their registered rights of way. Apart from this, the principle was all wrong; the legislation worked in favour of a trespasser instead of the legal owner who, although perhaps an absentee, had brought and paid for the land and paid the taxes on it. Notwithstanding the minority views of Mr. R.H. Cautley, who spoke in favour of the legislation, the Annual Meeting concluded that it was a nasty piece of work and that the Association should advise the government accordingly. Related to this question was the topic of a paper read by Col. A.C. Garner, Chief Surveyor to the Saskatchewan Land Titles Offices, describing the operation of the Special Surveys Act in that province. This was an Act which authorized the execution of re-surveys, retracements or reference or correction surveys at the instance of the Master of Titles in cases where the evidence as to the position of boundaries was inadequate or uncertain. Col. Garner’s paper led the meeting to adopt a resolution instructing the Committee on Legislation to consider the means of securing the enactment of a similar statute in Alberta, but as the President, Mr. J.L. Doupe, pointed out, such legislation could not be effective if there was no bar to the right of adverse possession in The Land Titles Act and that obstacle would first have to be cleared away.   Back - 1922-1923 - Growing Enthusiasm Forward - 1925 - Adverse Possession