Bill Text: MI SB1043 | 2013-2014 | 97th Legislature | Engrossed
Bill Title: Property; other; corner recordation act; modify. Amends title & secs. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 & 14 of 1970 PA 74 (MCL 54.202 et seq.) & adds secs. 3a & 3b.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Passed) 2014-12-31 - Assigned Pa 0420'14 With Immediate Effect [SB1043 Detail]
Download: Michigan-2013-SB1043-Engrossed.html
SB-1043, As Passed House, December 17, 2014
SENATE BILL No. 1043
September 10, 2014, Introduced by Senator WALKER and referred to the Committee on Local Government and Elections.
A bill to amend 1970 PA 74, entitled
"Corner recordation act,"
by amending the title and sections 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 14 (MCL
54.202, 54.203, 54.204, 54.205, 54.206, 54.207, 54.208, and
54.210d), sections 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, and 14 as amended by 2000 PA 34,
and by adding sections 3a and 3b.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
TITLE
An
act to protect and perpetuate public land survey corners;
to require the establishment of monuments and the recording of
information concerning original and protracted public land survey
corners;
to prescribe the duties of the register of deeds; certain
state and local governmental officers and entities; to require the
promulgation
of rules; and to provide prescribe penalties.
Sec. 2. As used in this act:
(a)
"Property corner" means a geographic point on the surface
of
the earth, which is on, is a part of, and controls a property
line.
(b)
"Property controlling corner" for a property means a
public
land survey corner or any property corner which does not lie
on
a property line of the property in question but which controls
the
location of 1 or more of the property corners of the property
in
question.
(c)
"Public land survey corner" means any corner actually
established
and monumented in an original survey or resurvey used
as
a basis of legal description for issuing a patent for the land
to
a private person from the United States government.
(d)
"Corner", unless otherwise qualified, means a property
corner,
a property controlling corner, a public land survey corner,
or
any combination of these.
(a) (e)
"Accessory", with
respect to a corner, means any
exclusively identifiable physical object whose spatial relationship
to
the corner is recorded . Accessories may be bearing trees,
bearing
objects, monuments, reference monuments, line trees, pits,
mounds,
charcoal-filled bottles, steel or wooden stakes, or other
objects.on a land corner recordation certificate that
has been
filed under this act.
(b) "Corner" means an original public land survey corner, a
protracted public land survey corner, a property controlling
corner, a witness monument, or a property corner.
(c) "County representative" means the individual performing
the duties of county representative under section 9 of the state
survey and remonumentation act, 1990 PA 345, MCL 54.269.
(d) "Department" means the department of licensing and
regulatory affairs.
(e) "Land corner recordation certificate" means a written
record for a corner in the form prescribed under section 5 that is
to be filed as provided by this act.
(f) "Monument" means a marker that occupies the position of a
corner and that possesses or is made to possess a magnetic field.
(g) "Original public land survey corner" means a corner
established and monumented pursuant to orders and instructions
issued by the United States government for the purposes of
delineating the United States public lands and private lands or
subdividing the public lands for conveyance.
(h) "Person" means an individual, partnership, corporation,
association, governmental entity, or other legal entity.
(i) "Property controlling corner" means either of the
following:
(i) A position misidentified as and used as an original public
land survey corner or as a protracted public land survey corner
that serves to control property.
(ii) A corner that does not lie on a property line of a
property but that controls the location of 1 or more of the
property corners of the property.
(j) "Property corner" means a geographic point on the surface
of the earth that is on, is a part of, and controls a property
line.
(k) "Protracted public land survey corner" means any of the
following:
(i) A closing quarter section position along a township or
range line or a center quarter section position that was not
actually monumented on the ground in the field notes of the
original federal government survey, but that serves to complete the
nominal half-mile grid of government corners.
(ii) A monumented position that is not an original public land
survey corner, that lies on a section line or quarter line near a
body of water, and that serves to define the section line or
quarter line in lieu of a submerged government position or an
omitted meander position.
(iii) A section or quarter section corner that appears by the
field notes and plats of the United States survey of this state, on
file in the state archives, to have been omitted and not properly
established or monumented.
(l) (g)
"Reference monument"
means a special monument that does
not
occupy the same geographical position as the corner itself but
whose
spatial relationship to the corner is recorded and that
serves
to witness the corner.an
accessory that is employed if the
site of a corner is such that a monument cannot be set or is liable
to destruction or if occupation of the site provides for unsafe
conditions.
(m) (h)
"Surveyor" means a
professional surveyor who is
licensed to practice professional surveying under article 20 of the
occupational
code, 1980 PA 299, MCL 339.101 to 339.2721.339.2001 to
339.2014.
(i)
"Board" means the board of professional surveyors, as
established
by section 2002 of the occupational code, 1980 PA 299,
MCL
339.2002.
(j)
"Corner record" means a written record on a form, approved
by
the board, of a corner established, reestablished, monumented,
remonumented,
restored, rehabilitated, perpetuated, or used as a
control
in a survey.
(k)
"County surveyor" means an individual holding the elective
office
of county surveyor, subject to section 95 of 1846 RS 14, MCL
54.95,
or an individual appointed as county representative pursuant
to
section 9 of the state survey and remonumentation act, 1990 PA
345,
MCL 54.269.
(n) "Witness monument" is an accessory that is a monumented
point near a corner. A witness monument is established only if it
is impracticable to occupy the site of a corner with a monument. A
witness monument is a witness to the true corner point. If the true
point for a corner falls at an inaccessible place, such as on a
precipitous slope or cliff where the corner cannot be monumented, a
witness monument is established at a suitable point where the
monument may be permanently constructed.
Sec.
3. If a an original public land survey corner or an
accessory
to the corner is used by a surveyor, as
a control in a
survey,
not more than 90 days after completion
of the survey, the
original public land survey corner is used, the surveyor shall
complete, sign, seal, and file with the register of deeds of the
county where the original public land survey corner is situated, a
land
corner record recordation certificate for the original
public
land
survey corner, or accessory to the corner, unless the original
public land survey corner monument and its accessories are as
described
in an existing land corner record recordation certificate
that has been filed under this act.
Sec. 3a. If a protracted public land survey corner is
monumented by a surveyor, or if a previously monumented protracted
public land survey corner is used by a surveyor, not more than 90
days after the protracted public land survey corner is monumented
or used, the surveyor shall complete, sign, seal, and file with the
register of deeds of the county where the protracted public land
survey corner is situated a land corner recordation certificate for
the protracted public land survey corner, unless the protracted
public land survey corner monument and its accessories are as
described in an existing land corner recordation certificate that
has been filed under this act.
Sec. 3b. If a property controlling corner has been recorded or
used as an original public land survey corner or protracted public
land survey corner, the property controlling corner must be
recorded on the same land corner recordation certificate required
to be filed under section 3 or 3a.
Sec.
4. A surveyor may file a corner record as to any property
corner,
property controlling corner, reference monument or
accessory
to a corner.If sections 3,
3a, and 3b do not apply, a
surveyor who monuments or uses a corner may complete, sign, seal,
and file with the register of deeds of the county where the corner
is situated a land corner recordation certificate for the corner.
Sec.
5. (1) The board, department, by rule, shall
prescribe
the
information which shall that
must be included in the a land
corner
record recordation
certificate and the form in which the
a
land
corner shall recordation certificate must be presented and
filed.
(2) The department shall promulgate rules pursuant to the
administrative procedures act of 1969, 1969 PA 306, MCL 24.201 to
24.328, to implement this act.
Sec.
6. (1) The A register of deeds shall receive for filing
the
a completed land
corner record recordation certificate and
preserve
it in a hardbound book. The books shall must be numbered
in numerical order as filed.
(2)
The A register of deeds shall number the land corner
records
recordation certificates in numerical order as they are
filed.
(3)
The A register of deeds
shall place the book and page
number
in which the a land corner record recordation certificate is
filed
shall be placed by the register of deeds on an index which
provided
by the register of deeds shall
provide for that purpose.
(4)
The A register of deeds shall make these the records
described in this section available for public inspection during
all usual office hours.
(5)
The A register of deeds
shall determine the fee for filing
a
land corner record shall be determined recordation certificate as
provided in section 2567(1)(a) of the revised judicature act of
1961, 1961 PA 236, MCL 600.2567.
Sec.
7. (1) If a land
corner record recordation certificate is
required to be filed under this act, the surveyor shall monument
the
corner, and record
and identify each accessory to the
corner,
and leave the monument in such a physical condition that it remains
as
permanent a monument as is reasonably possible. If access to the
corner
location will create an unsafe condition, the surveyor may
install
at least 4 reference monuments interrelated and visible
with
the corner location and each other by angular and linear
measurements.
(2) If a witness monument is set, the surveyor may monument
the corner and shall set the witness monument as follows:
(a) In a secure location.
(b) On a line of survey or protracted line of survey as shown
on the general land office plats that intersects the corner.
(c) As close to the corner as practicable.
(3) A surveyor who sets a witness monument under subsection
(2) shall report on the land corner recordation certificate the
relation between the witness monument and the true corner and the
direct connecting course and distance from the corner to the
witness monument.
(4) If a surveyor sets reference monuments, the surveyor shall
install at least 4 reference monuments interrelated and visible
with the corner and each other by angular and linear measurements.
If a surveyor sets reference monuments, the surveyor is not
required to set the corner.
(5) A surveyor who sets reference monuments under subsection
(4) shall report all of the following on the land corner
recordation certificate:
(a) The relation between the reference monuments and the
corner.
(b) The direct connecting courses and distances between the
reference monuments and the corner.
(c) The distances between each reference monument and the 2
reference monuments that are closest to the reference monument.
Sec.
8. A land corner record shall recordation certificate may
not be filed unless it is signed, dated, and sealed by the
surveyor.
However, in the case of for
a certificate prepared by or
on behalf of an agency of the United States government or this
state,
the certificate shall must
be approved, signed, dated, and
sealed by the surveyor in responsible charge of the agency and may
also be signed by the chief of the survey party making the survey.
Sec.
14. (1) A Except as
provided in this subsection or
subsection (2), a person who defaces, destroys, alters, or removes
a
corner monument, accessory,
witness monument, or reference
monument
is guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished
punishable
by a fine of not more than $1,000.00,
$5,000.00 or
imprisonment
for not more than 180 days, or both, and shall be is
responsible for the costs of reestablishment and replacement of the
monument, accessory, witness monument, or reference monument and
filing
of the associated land corner record recordation certificate
by a surveyor. This subsection does not apply to an accessory that
is on private property.
(2) A corner monument, accessory, witness monument, or
reference monument may be temporarily removed for construction
purposes if the corner is properly witnessed by a surveyor before
removal.
The A monument, shall be accessory, witness monument, or
reference monument that is removed under this subsection must be
reset , and rewitnessed , and refiled an associated land corner
recordation certificate filed by a surveyor within 30 days after
the
completion of the construction. A corner monument, accessory,
witness monument, or reference monument shall not be temporarily
removed for more than 1 year.
(3) A person who knows that a corner monument, accessory,
witness monument, or reference monument has been defaced,
destroyed, altered, or removed shall report that fact in writing to
the
county surveyor representative
and the county prosecutor of the
county in which the corner is located.
(2)
As used in this section, "person" means an individual,
partnership,
corporation, association, governmental entity, or
other
legal entity.
