Minnesota Session Laws - 1984, Regular Session

  

                         Laws of Minnesota 1984 

                        CHAPTER 566-S.F.No. 1473
           An act relating to real property; providing that 
          certain instruments may be recorded without an 
          auditor's certificate; allowing service of summons 
          upon dissolved domestic corporations; amending 
          provisions related to the abolition of dower and 
          curtesy; clarifying when the right of possession 
          passes after a sale on execution or judgment or 
          mortgage foreclosure; providing for a notice in 
          certain cases; requiring storage of abstracts of title 
          to be stored in Minnesota with certain exceptions; 
          amending Minnesota Statutes 1982, sections 272.12; 
          508.16, subdivision 1; 519.09; 519.101; and 566.03, 
          subdivision 1.  
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
    Section 1.  Minnesota Statutes 1982, section 272.12, is 
amended to read: 
    272.12 [CONVEYANCES, TAXES PAID BEFORE RECORDING.] 
    When a deed or other instrument conveying land, or a plat 
of any town site or addition thereto, or a survey required 
pursuant to section 508.47, is presented to the county auditor 
for transfer, he shall ascertain from his records if there be 
taxes delinquent upon the land described therein, or if it has 
been sold for taxes.  If there are taxes delinquent, he shall 
certify to the same; and upon payment of such taxes, or in case 
no taxes are delinquent, he shall transfer the land upon the 
books of his office, and note upon the instrument, over his 
official signature, the words, "no delinquent taxes and transfer 
entered," or, if the land described has been sold or assigned to 
an actual purchaser for taxes, the words "paid by sale of land 
described within;" and, unless such statement is made upon such 
instrument, the county recorder or the registrar of titles shall 
refuse to receive or record the same; provided, that sheriff's 
or referees' certificates of sale on execution or foreclosure of 
a lien or mortgage, deeds of distribution made by a personal 
representative in probate proceedings, decrees and judgments, 
receivers receipts, patents, and copies of town or statutory 
city plats, in case the original plat filed in the office of the 
county recorder has been lost or destroyed, and the instruments 
releasing, removing and discharging reversionary and forfeiture 
provisions affecting title to land and instruments releasing, 
removing or discharging easement rights in land or building or 
other restrictions, may be recorded without such certificate; 
and, provided that instruments conveying land and, as 
appurtenant thereto an easement over adjacent tract or tracts of 
land, may be recorded without such certificate as to the land 
covered by such easement; and provided further, that any 
instrument granting an easement made in favor of any public 
utility or pipe line for conveying gas, liquids or solids in 
suspension, in the nature of a right of way over, along, across 
or under a tract of land may be recorded without such 
certificate as to the land covered by such easement.  Any 
instrument amending or restating the declarations, bylaws, or 
other enabling documents governing homeowners associations of 
condominiums, townhouses, and other planned unit developments 
may be recorded without the auditor's certificate. 
    A deed of distribution made by a personal representative in 
a probate proceeding, a decree, or a judgment that conveys land 
shall be presented to the county auditor, who shall transfer the 
land upon the books of his office and note upon the instrument, 
over his official signature, the words, "transfer entered", and 
the instrument may then be recorded.  A decree or judgment that 
affects title to land but does not convey land may be recorded 
without presentation to the auditor.  
    A violation of this section by the county recorder or the 
registrar of titles shall be a gross misdemeanor, and, in 
addition to the punishment therefor, he shall be liable to the 
grantee of any instrument so recorded for the amount of any 
damages sustained. 
    When, as a condition to permitting the recording of deed or 
other instrument affecting the title to real estate previously 
forfeited to the state under the provisions of sections 281.16 
to 281.27, county officials, after such real estate has been 
purchased or repurchased, have required the payment of taxes 
erroneously assumed to have accrued against such real estate 
after forfeiture and before the date of purchase or repurchase, 
the sum required to be so paid shall be refunded to the persons 
entitled thereto out of moneys in the funds in which the sum so 
paid was placed.  Delinquent taxes are those taxes deemed 
delinquent under section 279.02. 
    Sec. 2.  Minnesota Statutes 1982, section 508.16, 
subdivision 1, is amended to read:  
    Subdivision 1.  The summons shall be subscribed by the 
clerk, directed to the defendants, and require them to appear 
and answer the application of the applicant, within 20 days 
after the service of the summons, exclusive of the day of such 
service.  It shall be served in the manner as provided by law 
for the service of a summons in civil actions in the district 
court, except as herein otherwise provided.  It shall be served 
upon the state by delivering a copy thereof to the attorney 
general, a deputy attorney general or an assistant attorney 
general who shall transmit the same to the county attorney of 
the county in which the land described therein is situated, and 
thereupon such county attorney shall appear in such proceeding, 
and represent the state therein.  It shall be served upon a 
domestic corporation governed by chapter 302A whose charter has 
terminated by dissolution, expiration, or otherwise, by 
delivering a copy of it to a person, known to the applicant, who 
held office in the corporation at the time of dissolution and 
can be found in the state or, if no officer known to the 
applicant can be found in the state, by publishing the summons 
in a newspaper printed and published in the county where the 
application is filed, once each week for three consecutive 
weeks.  It shall be served upon all persons not personally 
served who are not residents of the state or who cannot be found 
therein, and upon domestic corporations not governed by chapter 
302A whose charter has terminated by dissolution, expiration, or 
otherwise more than three years prior to the commencement of the 
action, and upon unknown successors in interests of such 
corporations, and upon "all other persons or parties unknown 
claiming any right, title, estate, lien, or interest in the real 
estate described in the application herein" by publishing the 
same in a newspaper printed and published in the county wherein 
the application is filed, once each week for three consecutive 
weeks; provided, if the order for summons or a supplemental 
order of the court, filed before, during or after the 
publication of the summons, shall so direct, the summons may be 
personally served without the state upon any one or more of the 
defendants who are nonresidents of the state or who cannot be 
found therein, in like manner and with like effect as such 
service in a summons in a civil action in the district court; 
and provided further, that any nonresident defendant, natural or 
corporate, who can be found in the state of Minnesota and can be 
personally served therein, may be served personally.  The clerk 
shall also, at least 20 days before the entry of the decree 
which shall be entered in the matter, send a copy of the summons 
by mail to all defendants not served personally who are not 
residents of the state, and whose place of address is known to 
applicant or stated in the application, or in the order 
directing the issuance of the summons.  The certificate of the 
clerk that he has mailed the summons, as herein provided, shall 
be conclusive evidence thereof.  Other or further notice of the 
application for registration may be given in such manner and to 
such persons as the court or any judge thereof may direct.  The 
summons shall be served at the expense of the applicant and 
proof of the service shall be made in the same manner as in 
civil actions.  The summons shall be substantially in the 
following form: 

            SUMMONS IN APPLICATION FOR REGISTRATION OF LAND 
    State of Minnesota 

                                  ss. 
    County of ........ 
    District Court ...... Judicial District. 
    In the matter of the application of (name of applicant) to 
register the title to the following described real estate 
situated in ............. county, Minnesota, namely:  
(description of land) .................. 
    Applicant, 

                                   vs 
    (names of defendants) and "all other persons or parties 
unknown claiming any right, title, estate, lien or interest in 
the real estate described in the application herein." 
    Defendants. 

         THE STATE OF MINNESOTA TO THE ABOVE NAMED DEFENDANTS: 
    You are hereby summoned and required to answer the 
application of the applicant in the above entitled proceeding 
and to file your answer to the said application in the office of 
the clerk of said court, in said county, within 20 days after 
service of this summons upon you exclusive of the day of such 
service, and, if you fail to answer the application within the 
time aforesaid, the applicant in this proceeding will apply to 
the court for the relief demanded therein. 
    Witness ........ clerk of said court, and the seal thereof, 
at .........., in said county, this ........ day of .........., 
19... 
    (Seal) 
 
                                            ..............
                                                  Clerk   
    Sec. 3.  Minnesota Statutes 1982, section 519.09, is 
amended to read: 
    519.09 [DOWER AND CURTESY ABOLISHED.] 
    All inchoate estates or statutory interests in lieu of 
dower and curtesy in all lands in this state which have been 
conveyed prior to January 1, 1960 1970, by the husband or wife 
of the one entitled to such inchoate dower or curtesy, or 
statutory interest, by a conveyance in writing, are hereby 
abolished.  
    Sec. 4.  Minnesota Statutes 1982, section 519.101, is 
amended to read: 
    519.101 [ACTIONS NOT MAINTAINABLE.] 
    No action for the recovery of real property, or of any 
right therein, or the possession thereof, shall be maintained by 
any person having any estate in dower or by the curtesy or any 
estate or statutory interest in lieu of dower or by the curtesy 
therein, or by anyone claiming, by, through or under any such 
person, where it appears that the husband or wife of such person 
conveyed such real property, or any interest therein, by a 
conveyance in writing, prior to the first day of January, 1960 
1970; and no action shall be maintained for the recovery of real 
property, or of any right therein, or the possession thereof, by 
any person claiming by reason of failure of a spouse to join in 
a conveyance of land which constituted the homestead of the 
grantor at the time of the conveyance where such conveyance was 
made prior to January 1, 1960 1970, unless such action shall be 
commenced on or prior to the first day of January, 1974 1985, 
and notice thereof filed for record at the time of the 
commencement of said action in the office of the county recorder 
in the county where said real property is situate. 
    Sec. 5.  Minnesota Statutes 1982, section 566.03, 
subdivision 1, is amended to read: 
    Subdivision 1.  When any person holds over lands or 
tenements after a sale thereof on an execution or judgment, or 
on foreclosure of a mortgage, and expiration of the time for 
redemption, or after termination of contract to convey the same, 
provided that if the person holding such lands or tenements 
after the sale, foreclosure, or termination is a tenant, he has 
received at least one month's written notice of the termination 
of his tenancy as a result of the sale, foreclosure, or 
termination; or when any person holds over lands or tenements 
after termination of the time for which they are demised or let 
to him or to the persons under whom he holds possession, or 
contrary to the conditions or covenants of the lease or 
agreement under which he holds, or after any rent becomes due 
according to the terms of such lease or agreement,; or when any 
tenant at will holds over after the determination of any such 
estate by notice to quit,; in all such cases the person entitled 
to the premises may recover possession thereof in the manner 
hereinafter provided. 
    Sec. 6.  [386.375] [ABSTRACT OF TITLE; STORAGE WITHIN 
MINNESOTA.] 
    An abstract of title to Minnesota real estate shall be 
stored within the state of Minnesota.  This section does not 
apply if the holder of the abstract of title is the mortgagor or 
fee simple owner of the real estate to which the abstract 
pertains. 
    Approved April 26, 1984