Minnesota Session Laws - 1993, Regular Session

  
    Laws of Minnesota 1993 

                         CHAPTER 96-H.F.No. 522 
           An act relating to utilities; clarifying the 
          specificity needed for public service corporation 
          easements; amending Minnesota Statutes 1992, section 
          300.045. 
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
    Section 1.  Minnesota Statutes 1992, section 300.045, is 
amended to read: 
     300.045 [EASEMENTS OVER PRIVATE PROPERTY, LIMITATIONS.] 
     When public service corporations, including pipeline 
companies, acquire easements over private property by purchase, 
gift, or eminent domain proceedings, except temporary easements 
for construction, they must definitely and specifically describe 
the easement being acquired, and may not acquire an easement 
greater than the minimum necessary for the safe conduct of their 
business.  
     For the purposes of this section, a public service 
corporation may meet the requirement of a definite and specific 
description of an easement by: 
     (1) including in the recorded description of the easement 
the specific legal reference points as to the location of the 
easement in relation to the corners of the specific property 
involved at the points the easement enters and departs from the 
property; or 
    (2) appending to the recorded description of the easement a 
drawing that identifies by means of a scale or specific 
measurements the location of the easement in relation to the 
corners of the specific property involved at the points the 
easement enters and departs from the property. 
     When a question arises as to the location of an easement 
across specific property and the recorded description of the 
easement does not include a definite and specific description of 
the easement by a method identified in clause (1) or (2), the 
public service corporation holding the easement shall, upon 
written request by the specific property owner, produce and 
record in a timely manner a definite and specific description 
using a method described in clause (1) or (2). 
     This section does not require a public service corporation 
to physically locate, establish, and monument by means of a land 
survey prepared by a registered land surveyor the corners of the 
specific property involved. 
     Sec. 2.  [EFFECTIVE DATE.] 
     Section 1 is effective the day following final enactment. 
    Presented to the governor May 6, 1993 
    Signed by the governor May 7, 1993, 2:41 p.m.