b'Alerts1 Moratzka 2 Hennepin County Addressed at SCOTUS Decides Century-Old Plat not Subject to Marketable Title ActThe Minnesota Supreme Court recently held, In theThe Supreme Court of the United States recently ruled Matter of the Application of Timothy D. Moratzka,on a case from Minnesota. Geraldine Tyler, a 92-year-old Trustee, that public interests dedicated by plat are notHennepin County resident, accumulated approximately subject to Minnesotas Marketable Title Act, Minn.$15,000 in unpaid real estate taxes on her condominium. Stat.541.023 (MTA).The County seized her condo and sold it for $40,000, keeping the excess $25,000. Tyler argued that the County An owner of lake resort property initiated a Torrenshad unconstitutionally retained the excess value of her proceeding to register title to a small strip of landhome in violation of the Takings Clause of the Fifth platted in 1911 as a public road dedicate[d] to theAmendment and the Excessive Fines Clause of the Eighth public use forever. No road was ever constructed onAmendment. The District Court dismissed for failure to such strip, and it had instead been left as a sandy beach.state a claim, and the Eighth Circuit affirmed. The resort owner argued that title could be claimed because the strip had been abandoned under the MTA,SCOTUS held Tyler did state an appropriate claim under the Takings Clause, which provides that private property which requires any claimant of a real estate interest toshall not be taken for public use, without just compensation. Further, federal law has long recognized the record notice within 40 years. The Minnesota DNRprinciple that a taxpayer is entitled to the surplus in excess of the debt owed, and Minnesota law recognizes many and the county both counterargued that the ownerother contexts that a property owner is entitled to the surplus in excess of her debt. Lastly, the Court rejected the must instead seek to vacate the public road underargument that Tyler had no property interest in the surplus because she abandoned her home by failing to pay her Minn. Stat.505.14.taxes, noting the County cannot frame that failure as abandonment to avoid the demands of the Takings Clause. The strip at issue in Moratzka. (Itasca County GIS Viewer.) Tyler v. Hennepin County, Minnesota, et al., 598 U.S.__ (2023).Interpreting the MTA anew, the Court concluded that the MTAs express statutory purposethat ancient records shall not fetter the marketability of real estatedoes not apply to plats because plats are governed by Minn. Stat.505.01 to 505.1793 and have stringent3 The Uniform Electronic Wills Actreview, approval, recording, and public inspection requirements, separate and apart from the MTA. The Court was also persuaded that the public interest isparticularly strong here because the consequences of holding that theToday, many legal and financial documents are considered valid and enforceable when signed or notarized electronically. MTA can extinguish 40-year or older platted public interests would result in the loss of public access to many lakesIn Minnesota, wills have been an exception due to certain witness and signatory formalities which, until now, were across Minnesota. required to occur physically, in writing. Moratzka illustrates that private landowners subject to a plat, no matter how old or how public land is actually used,On March 31, 2023, Governor Walz signed the Uniform Electronic Wills Act (the Act). The new law, which took effect will not be able to unilaterally sidestep platted public roadways, public access, park land, or other public features, andon August 1, 2023, expands Minnesotas existing statutes in such a way that permits wills to be created, witnessed, and should instead work in cooperation with governmental authorities instead of against them.notarized electronically. Specifically, the Act defines an Electronic Will as a will or codicil that (i) is created, signed, or maintained in an electronic, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or other similar medium, (ii) is If you need assistance reviewing an old plat, or want to explore options to resolve public land use issues, contact theretrievable in perceivable form, and (iii) is capable of verification that the writing of the electronic will has not been Moss & Barnett real estate team today. altered after its signing. In addition to modernizing the execution of wills and closing the disconnect between wills and other legal documents, the Act is intended to encourage more Minnesotans to create a will by making it more accessible and affordable to do so. While its provisions remain untested and largely undefined at this time, the Act is sure to provide new opportunitiesand new challengesin estate planning, administration, and litigation. 6 7#'