Minnesota Session Laws - 1987, Regular Session

  

                         Laws of Minnesota 1987 

                        CHAPTER 356-S.F.No. 652 
           An act relating to agriculture; providing a 
          computerized filing system and central data base for 
          uniform commercial code financing statements and lien 
          statements; imposing a penalty; appropriating money; 
          amending Minnesota Statutes 1986, section 336.9-407; 
          proposing coding for new law in Minnesota Statutes, 
          chapter 336.  
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
    Section 1.  Minnesota Statutes 1986, section 336.9-407, is 
amended to read: 
    336.9-407 [INFORMATION FROM FILING OFFICER.] 
    (1) If the person filing any financing statement, 
termination statement, statement of assignment, or statement of 
release, furnishes the filing officer a copy thereof, the filing 
officer shall upon request note upon the copy the file number 
and date and hour of the filing of the original and deliver or 
send the copy to such person. 
    (2) Upon request of any person, the filing officer shall 
conduct a search of a file for any effective financing 
statements naming a particular debtor and any statement of 
assignment thereof.  The filing officer shall report the 
findings as of that date and hour by issuing:  
    (a)  a certificate listing the file number, date, and hour 
of each filing and the names and addresses of each secured party 
therein;  
    (b) photocopies of the original documents on file; or, 
    (c) upon request, both the certificate and photocopies of 
the statements.  
     The uniform fee for conducting the search and for preparing 
a certificate showing up to five listed filings or for preparing 
up to five photocopies of original documents, or any combination 
of up to five listed filings and photocopies, shall be $5 if the 
request is in the standard form prescribed by the secretary of 
state and otherwise shall be $10.  Another fee, at the same 
rate, shall also be charged for conducting a search and 
preparing a certificate showing federal and state tax liens on 
file with the filing officer naming a particular debtor.  There 
shall be an additional fee of 50 cents for each financing 
statement and each statement of assignment or tax lien listed on 
the certificate and for each photocopy prepared in excess of the 
first five.  Notwithstanding the fees set in this section, a 
natural person who is the subject of data must, upon the 
person's request, be shown the data without charge, and upon 
request be provided with photocopies of the data upon payment of 
no more than the actual cost of making the copies. 
    Sec. 2.  [336.9-411] [COMPUTERIZED FILING SYSTEM.] 
    (a) The secretary of state shall develop and implement a 
statewide computerized filing system to accumulate and 
disseminate information relative to lien statements, financing 
statements, and other uniform commercial code documents.  The 
computerized filing system must allow information to be entered 
and retrieved from the computerized filing system by county 
recorders.  
    (b) County recorders shall enter information relative to 
lien statements, financing statements, and other uniform 
commercial code documents filed in their offices into a central 
data base maintained by the secretary of state.  The information 
must be entered under the rules of the secretary of state. 
    (c) The secretary of state may allow private parties to 
have electronic-view-only access to the computerized filing 
system on a fee basis.  If the computerized filing system allows 
a form of electronic access to information regarding the 
obligations of debtors, the access must be available 24 hours a 
day, every day of the year. 
    (d) The secretary of state shall adopt rules to implement 
the computerized filing system.  The secretary of state may 
adopt permanent and emergency rules.  The rules must:  
    (1) allow filings to be made at the offices of all county 
recorders and the secretary of state's office as required by 
section 336.9-401; 
    (2) establish a central data base for all information 
relating to liens and security interests that are filed at the 
offices of county recorders and the secretary of state; 
    (3) provide procedures for entering data into a central 
data base; 
    (4) allow the offices of all county recorders and the 
secretary of state's office to add, modify, and delete 
information in the central data base as required by the uniform 
commercial code;  
    (5) allow the offices of all county recorders and the 
secretary of state's office to have access to the central data 
base for review and search capabilities; 
    (6) require the secretary of state to maintain the central 
data base; 
    (7) provide security and protection of all information in 
the central data base and monitor the central data base to 
ensure that unauthorized entry is not allowed; 
    (8) require standardized information for entry into the 
central data base; 
    (9) prescribe an identification procedure for debtors and 
secured parties that will enhance lien and financing statement 
searches; 
    (10) provide a system for coding information on collateral; 
and 
    (11) prescribe a procedure for phasing-in or converting 
from the existing filing system to a computerized filing system. 
    Sec. 3.  [336.9-412] [LIABILITY FOR INFORMATION ERRORS.] 
    The state, the secretary of state, counties, county 
recorders, and their employees and agents are immune from 
liability that occurs as a result of errors in or omissions from 
information provided from the computerized filing system.  
    Sec. 4.  [336.9-413] [UNIFORM COMMERCIAL CODE ACCOUNT.] 
    (a) The uniform commercial code account is established as 
an account in the state treasury.  
    (b) The filing officer with whom a financing statement, 
amendment, or continuation statement is filed, or to whom a 
request for search is made, shall collect a $2 surcharge on each 
filing or search.  By June 1 and December 1 of each year, each 
county recorder shall forward the accumulated receipts from the 
surcharge to the secretary of state.  The surcharge does not 
apply to a search request made by a natural person who is the 
subject of the data to be searched except when a certificate is 
requested as a part of the search.  
    (c) The surcharge amounts received from county recorders 
and the surcharge amounts collected by the secretary of state's 
office must be deposited in the state treasury and credited to 
the uniform commercial code account. 
    (d) Fees that are not expressly set by statute but are 
charged by the secretary of state to offset the costs of 
providing a service under sections 2 to 4 must be deposited in 
the state treasury and credited to the uniform commercial code 
account.  
    (e) Money in the uniform commercial code account is 
continuously appropriated to the secretary of state to implement 
and maintain the computerized uniform commercial code filing 
system under section 2.  
    Sec. 5.  [APPROPRIATION.] 
    Subdivision 1.  [UNIFORM COMMERICAL CODE ACCOUNT.] $500,000 
is appropriated from the general fund for transfer to the 
uniform commercial code account for implementation and 
maintenance of the computerized uniform commercial code filing 
system to be available until expended.  
    Subd. 2.  [REIMBURSEMENT.] The appropriation in subdivision 
1 must be reimbursed from the uniform commercial code account to 
the general fund by June 30, 1989.  
    Subd. 3.  [COMPLEMENT.] The approved complement of the 
office of the secretary of state is increased by 7 persons. 
    Sec. 6.  [EFFECTIVE DATE.] 
    Subdivision 1.  [GENERALLY.] Sections 2 to 5 are effective 
the day after enactment except as provided in subdivisions 2 and 
3.  
    Subd. 2.  [COMPUTERIZED FILING SYSTEM.] The computerized 
filing system under section 2 must be implemented by the 
secretary of state and operational by November 1, 1988, and the 
provisions of section 2 relating to the computerized filing 
system are effective on the date that the secretary of state 
notifies the public and the filing officers that the 
computerized filing system is operational.  The secretary of 
state must give notice of the system being operational at least 
30 days before the operational date.  
    Subd. 3.  [FILING AND SEARCH SURCHARGE.] The filing and 
search fee surcharge under section 4, paragraph (b), is 
effective for filings and search requests made on or after July 
1, 1987. 
    Approved June 2, 1987