Minnesota Session Laws - 1999, Regular Session

                            CHAPTER 184-S.F.No. 233 
                  An act relating to real property; providing for 
                  definite and specific descriptions for certain 
                  easements; applying the requirement retroactively to 
                  all easements whenever created; providing that certain 
                  deficiency judgment requirements do not apply to 
                  property that is not used for agricultural production 
                  by the mortgagor; amending Minnesota Statutes 1998, 
                  sections 300.045; and 582.30, subdivision 1. 
        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
           Section 1.  Minnesota Statutes 1998, section 300.045, is 
        amended to read: 
           300.045 [EASEMENTS OVER PRIVATE PROPERTY, LIMITATIONS.] 
           (a) 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 in a width necessary for the safe 
        conduct of their business.  
           (b) 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, the width of the easement, and each change of course 
        as the easement crosses 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, the width of the 
        easement, and each change of course as the easement crosses the 
        property. 
           (c) When a question arises as to the location, width, or 
        course of an easement across specific property and the recorded 
        description of the easement does not include a definite and 
        specific description of the location, width, or course of the 
        easement by a method identified in paragraph (b), 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 an instrument that provides a definite 
        and specific description using a method described in paragraph 
        (b), clause (1) or (2).  The definite and specific description 
        must be the minimum width necessary for the safe conduct of the 
        business of the public service corporation with respect to the 
        language of the original easement.  In the partial release or 
        other instrument, a public service corporation may reserve: 
           (1) the right of reasonable ingress and egress over and 
        across the released property, provided that it shall agree to 
        pay any damages caused by the exercise of such rights; and 
           (2) additional conditions and restrictions permitted in the 
        original easement. 
           Thirty days after a public service corporation has produced 
        and delivered to the property owner a definite and specific 
        description, and provided that the property owner has not within 
        30 days responded to the public service corporation with a 
        written objection to the terms of the property description, it 
        may record the description and is not thereafter required to 
        again produce or record under this section for the same property 
        or a part of the same property.  
           This section applies to every easement over private 
        property acquired by a public service corporation, regardless of 
        when the easement was acquired or created. 
           (d) This section does not require a public service 
        corporation to physically locate, establish, and monument by 
        means of a land survey prepared by a licensed land surveyor the 
        corners of the specific property involved. 
           (e) This section does not limit direct access to a public 
        service corporation easement in an emergency situation.  The 
        public service corporation affected by the emergency must 
        compensate the property owner for damages caused by directly 
        accessing the easement. 
           Sec. 2.  Minnesota Statutes 1998, section 582.30, 
        subdivision 1, is amended to read: 
           Subdivision 1.  [DEFICIENCY ALLOWED.] (a) Except as 
        provided in this section, a person holding a mortgage may obtain 
        a deficiency judgment against the mortgagor if the amount a 
        person holding a mortgage receives from a foreclosure sale is 
        less than: 
           (1) the amount remaining unpaid on the mortgage under 
        chapter 580; or 
           (2) the amount of the judgment entered under chapter 581. 
           (b) Except as provided in subdivisions 3 and 5, the 
        judgment may not be for more than the difference between the 
        amount received from the foreclosure sale less expenses and 
        costs and: 
           (1) for a foreclosure by advertisement, the total amount 
        that attaches to the sale proceeds under chapter 580; or 
           (2) for a foreclosure by action, the amount of the judgment 
        entered under chapter 581. 
           (c) Subdivisions 3 to 9 do not apply to mortgages entered 
        or amended on or after the day following final enactment, if the 
        mortgaged property is used in agricultural production only by a 
        tenant who is not the mortgagor. 
           Sec. 3.  [EFFECTIVE DATE.] 
           This act is effective the day after its final enactment.  
        Section 1 applies retroactively to all easements whenever 
        created except that section 1 does not apply to litigation 
        pending on the effective date. 
           Presented to the governor May 18, 1999 
           Signed by the governor May 21, 1999, 10:02 a.m.