2007 Minnesota Statutes

CHAPTER 301B. PUBLIC SERVICE CORPORATIONS

301B.01 PUBLIC SERVICE CORPORATIONS; PURPOSES.
A corporation may be organized to construct, acquire, maintain, or operate internal
improvements, including railways, street railways, telegraph and telephone lines, canals,
slackwater, or other navigation, dams to create or improve a water supply or to furnish power for
public use, and any work for supplying the public, by whatever means, with water, light, heat, or
power, including all requisite subways, pipes, and other conduits, and tunnels for transportation
of pedestrians. No corporation formed for these purposes may construct, maintain, or operate
a railway of any kind, or a subway, pipe line, or other conduit, or a tunnel for transportation of
pedestrians in or upon a street, alley, or other public ground of a city, without first obtaining from
the city a franchise conferring this right and compensating the city for it.
History: (7432) RL s 2841; 1925 c 73; 1973 c 123 art 5 s 7; 1984 c 628 art 5 s 1; 2005
c 69 art 1 s 21

301B.02 STATE AND LOCAL CONTROL; EMINENT DOMAIN.
The state may supervise and regulate the business methods and management of a corporation
referred to in section 301B.01 and from time to time may fix the compensation which it may
charge or receive for its services. The corporation obtaining a franchise from a city is subject to
conditions and restrictions as from time to time are imposed upon it by the city. The corporation
may acquire by power of eminent domain the private property necessary or convenient for the
transaction of the public business for which it was formed. No street railway company has the
power of eminent domain within the limits of a city.
History: (7433) RL s 2842; 1973 c 123 art 5 s 7; 1984 c 628 art 5 s 1; 2005 c 69 art 1 s
21; 2006 c 214 s 20

301B.03 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 acquire an easement 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.
History: 1973 c 58 s 1; 1984 c 628 art 5 s 1; 1993 c 96 s 1; 1998 c 324 s 9; 1999 c 184 s 1;
2005 c 69 art 1 s 21

301B.04 PUBLIC SERVICE CORPORATIONS; MORTGAGES AND DEEDS OF TRUST.
A public service corporation owning property in this state may mortgage or execute deeds
of trust of the whole, or any part, of its property and franchises to secure money borrowed by it
for the construction and equipment of its lines and properties and for its corporate purposes. The
corporation may issue its corporate bonds, in sums of at least $100, secured by these mortgages
or deeds of trust. The mortgages or deeds of trust may by their terms include after-acquired real
and personal property, and are as valid and effectual for that purpose as if this after-acquired
property were owned by, and in possession of, the corporation giving the mortgage or deed
of trust at the time of its execution.
History: (7449) 1917 c 10 s 1; 1919 c 127 s 1; 1921 c 131 s 1; 1971 c 28 s 1; 1984 c
628 art 5 s 1; 2005 c 69 art 1 s 21

301B.05 EXECUTION OF MORTGAGES AND DEEDS OF TRUST LEGALIZED.
If a public service corporation owning property in this state has mortgaged or executed deeds
of trust of the whole, or any part, of its property and franchises to secure money borrowed by it
for the construction and equipment of lines and properties and for its corporate purposes and has
issued its corporate bonds in sums of at least $100 secured by mortgages or deeds of trust, bearing
interest at a rate not exceeding eight percent per year and the mortgages or deeds of trust have by
their terms included after-acquired real and personal property, or have borne interest at a rate not
exceeding eight percent per year, the mortgages and deeds of trust are legalized and made valid
and effectual to all intents and purposes as if the after-acquired property were owned by and in
possession of the corporation giving the mortgage or deed of trust at the time of its execution, and
as if the corporate bonds bore interest at the rate of seven percent per year.
History: (7450) 1917 c 10 s 2; 1921 c 131 s 2; 1984 c 628 art 5 s 1; 2005 c 69 art 1 s 21