Minnesota Session Laws - 1988, Regular Session

  

                         Laws of Minnesota 1988 

                        CHAPTER 484-H.F.No. 2000 
           An act relating to civil actions; requiring the 
          judgment creditor to file satisfaction of judgment 
          documents; requiring the prevailing party in a civil 
          action to pay the cost of filing a satisfaction of 
          judgment; amending Minnesota Statutes 1986, sections 
          480.061, subdivision 1; 548.15; and 549.02. 
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
    Section 1.  Minnesota Statutes 1986, section 480.061, 
subdivision 1, is amended to read:  
    Subdivision 1.  [POWER TO ANSWER.] The supreme court may 
answer questions of law certified to it by the supreme court of 
the United States, a court of appeals of the United States, a 
United States district court, a United States bankruptcy court, 
or the highest appellate court or the intermediate appellate 
court of any other state, when requested by the certifying court 
if there are involved in any proceeding before it questions of 
law of this state which may be determinative of the cause then 
pending in the certifying court and as to which it appears to 
the certifying court there is no controlling precedent in the 
decisions of the supreme court of this state. 
    Sec. 2.  Minnesota Statutes 1986, section 548.15, is 
amended to read:  
    548.15 [DISCHARGE OF RECORD.] 
    Upon the satisfaction of a judgment, whether wholly or in 
part, or as to all or any of several defendants, the court 
administrator shall enter the satisfaction in the judgment roll, 
and note it, with its date, on the docket.  If the docketing is 
upon a transcript from another county, the entry on the 
docket shall be is sufficient.  A judgment shall be deemed is 
satisfied when there is filed with the court administrator: 
    (1) An execution satisfied, to the extent stated in the 
sheriff's return on it; 
    (2) A certificate of satisfaction signed and acknowledged 
by the judgment creditor; 
    (3) A like certificate signed and acknowledged by the 
attorney of the creditor, unless that attorney's authority as 
attorney has previously been revoked and an entry of the 
revocation made upon the register;  the authority of an attorney 
to satisfy a judgment ceases at the end of six years from its 
entry; 
    (4) An order of the court, made on motion, requiring the 
execution of a certificate of satisfaction, or directing 
satisfaction to be entered without it; 
    (5) Where a judgment is docketed on transcript, a copy of 
either of the foregoing documents, certified by the court 
administrator in which the judgment was originally entered and 
in which the originals were filed. 
    A satisfaction made in the name of a partnership is valid 
if executed by a member of it while the partnership continues.  
The judgment creditor, or the creditor's attorney while the 
attorney's authority continues, may also satisfy a judgment of 
record by a brief entry on the register, signed by the creditor 
or the creditor's attorney and dated and witnessed by the court 
administrator, who shall note the satisfaction on the margin of 
the docket.  When a judgment is satisfied otherwise than by 
return of execution, the judgment creditor or the creditor's 
attorney shall give file a certificate of it with the court 
administrator within ten days after the satisfaction or within 
30 days of payment by check or other noncertified funds. 
    Sec. 3.  Minnesota Statutes 1986, section 549.02, is 
amended to read: 
    549.02 [COSTS IN DISTRICT COURTS.] 
    In actions commenced in the district court, costs shall be 
allowed as follows: 
    To plaintiff:  (1) Upon a judgment in the plaintiff's favor 
of $100 or more in an action for the recovery of money only, 
when no issue of fact or law is joined, $5; when issue is 
joined, $10.  (2) In all other actions, including an action by a 
public employee for wrongfully denied or withheld employment 
benefits or rights, except as otherwise specially provided, $10. 
    To defendant:  (1) Upon discontinuance or dismissal, $5. 
(2) When judgment is rendered in the defendant's favor on the 
merits, $10. 
    To the prevailing party:  (1) $5.50 for the cost of filing 
a satisfaction of the judgment. 
    Approved April 12, 1988