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600.13 OFFICIAL RECORDS PRIMA FACIE EVIDENCE; CERTIFIED COPIES;
CERTIFIED COPIES OF DECREES OF COURTS EXERCISING PROBATE
JURISDICTION; WHEN SEAL NOT NECESSARY.
The original record made by any public officer in the performance of official duty shall be
prima facie evidence of the facts required or permitted by law to be recorded by the officer. A copy
of such record, or of any document which is made evidence by law and is preserved in the office or
place where the same was required or is permitted to be filed or kept, or a copy of any authorized
record of such document so preserved, when certified by the person entitled to the official custody
thereof to have been compared by that person with the original and to be a correct transcript
therefrom, shall be received in evidence in all cases, with the same force and effect given to such
original document or record; but if such officer have, by law, an official seal, the certificate shall
be authenticated thereby. No part of this section relating to the form of certification shall apply to
documents or records kept in the departments or offices of the United States government.
In all cases where a decree of a court exercising probate jurisdiction, assigning or distributing
property of a decedent, embraces real estate or other property situated in more than one county,
the court exercising probate jurisdiction shall furnish, upon request therefor, certified copies of
parts of such decrees, excluding from such certified copy all descriptions of real or other property
included in such decree excepting description of such real estate and other property as appears
from the face of the decree to be situated in any one or more counties designated by the applicant
for such certified copy. The court shall indicate the omission hereby permitted, in the certified
copy, by the words "and other property situated in .................... county, or counties, Minnesota"
inserted in the certified copy at the points where the omissions occur. Such certified copy shall
be entitled to record in the office of the county recorder and in the office of the registrar of
titles of the county, or counties, in which the real estate or other property in the certified copy
described, or any part thereof, is situated. Such certified copy, or a copy of any authorized record
of such certified copy, certified by the person entitled to the official custody thereof to have been
compared by that person with the original or the record thereof and to be a correct transcription
therefrom, shall be received in evidence in all cases with the same force and effect given to such
original decree relative to the matter in the certified copy or the record thereof contained. If such
officer have by law an official seal, the certificate shall be authenticated thereby.
This section shall not be construed to require the affixing of the seal of the court to any
certified copy of a rule or order made by such court, or to any paper filed therein, when such copy
is used in the same court or before any officer thereof.
History: (9862,9863) RL s 4708,4709; 1927 c 365 s 1; 1976 c 181 s 2; 1986 c 444; 1995
c 189 s 8; 1996 c 277 s 1

Official Publication of the State of Minnesota
Revisor of Statutes