Jeffery N. Lucas, PLS, shares his insights into this question in a recent POB article. Is a surveyor's task simply to take measurements? Very rarely is our work that simple. Is his task to simply "stake the deed"? Absolutely not, since discrepancies are common between legal descriptions and actual ground measurements. While there are some decisions that must be relegated to the legal profession, the surveyor who does his work properly will consider ALL of the evidence before making a boundary determination. Finding "pincushions" of markers at property corners just adds to the challenge...