Title 47 — Property

A servient tenement means the land upon which a burden or servitude has been placed.

A servitude can be created only by one who has a vested estate in the servient tenement.

A servitude thereon cannot be held by the owner of the servient tenement.

The extent of a servitude is determined by the terms of the grant or the nature of the enjoyment by which it was acquired.

In case of partition of the dominant tenement, the burden must be apportioned according to the division of the dominant tenement, but not in such a way as to increase the burden upon the servient tenement.

The owner of a future estate in a dominant tenement may use easements attached thereto for the purpose of viewing waste, demanding rent, or removing an obstruction to the enjoyment of such easement, although such tenement is occupied by a tenant.

The owner of any estate in a dominant tenement, or the occupant of such tenement, may maintain an action for the enforcement of an easement attached thereto.

The owner in fee of a servient tenement may maintain an action for the possession of the land against anyone unlawfully possessed thereof, though a servitude exists thereon in favor of the public.

A servitude is extinguished: 1. By vesting of the right to the servitude and the right to the servient tenement in the same person; 2. By the destruction of the servient tenement; 3. By the performance of any act upon either tenement by the owner of the servitude or with the owne…

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a person may not create, convey, or record any easement, servitude, or nonappurtenant restriction on the use of real property within thirty-three feet [10.06 meters] of the centerline of any section line if the purpose of that easement,…

Redesignated as section 17-04-02 under S.L. 2007, ch. 204, § 5.

Redesignated as section 17-04-03 under S.L. 2007, ch. 204, § 5.

Redesignated as section 17-04-04 under S.L. 2007, ch. 204, § 5.

The right of access to land to shoot, shoot at, pursue, take, attempt to take, or kill any game animals or game birds; search for or attempt to locate or flush any game animals and game birds; lure, call, or attempt to attract game animals or game birds; hide for the purpose of t…

Occupancy for any period confers a title sufficient against all except the state and those who have title by prescription, accession, transfer, will, or succession.

Occupancy for the period prescribed by any law of this state as sufficient to bar an action for the recovery of the property confers a title thereto, denominated a title by prescription, which is sufficient against all.

A title to real property, vested in any person who has been or hereafter shall be, either alone or including those under whom that person claims, in the actual open adverse and undisputed possession of the land under such title for a period of ten years and who, either alone or i…

When a person affixes that person's property to the land of another without an agreement permitting that person to remove it, the thing affixed belongs to the owner of the land, unless the owner of the land chooses to require the former to remove it. A tenant may remove from the …

1. Upon approval of the mobile home park owner, the owner of a mobile home located in the park may construct a storm shelter in the mobile home park. The approval must be in writing and must include the type, location, and use of the shelter, and an agreement between the park own…

Where from natural causes land forms by imperceptible degrees upon the bank of a river or stream, navigable or not navigable, either by accumulation of material or by the recession of the stream, such land belongs to the owner of the bank, subject to any existing right of way ove…

If a river or stream, navigable or not navigable, carries away by sudden violence a considerable and distinguishable part of a bank and bears it to the opposite bank or to another part of the same bank, the owner of the part carried away may reclaim it within a year after the own…

If a stream, navigable or not navigable, forms a new course abandoning its ancient bed, the owners of the land newly occupied take by way of indemnity the ancient bed abandoned, each in proportion to the land of which the owner has been deprived.

Islands and accumulations of land formed in the beds of streams which are navigable belong to the state, if there is no title or prescription to the contrary. The control and management, including the power to execute surface and mineral leases, of islands, relictions, and accumu…

An island or accumulation of land formed in a stream which is not navigable belongs to the owner of the shore on that side where the island or accumulation is formed, or if not formed on one side only, to the owners of the shore on the two sides, divided by an imaginary line draw…

If a stream, navigable or not navigable, in forming itself a new arm divides itself and surrounds land belonging to the owner of the shore and thereby forms an island, the island belongs to such owner.

If there is no law to the contrary in the place where personal property is situated, it is deemed to follow the person of its owner and is governed by the law of the owner's domicile.

A thing in action is a right to recover money or other personal property by a judicial proceeding.

A thing in action arising out of the violation of a right of property or out of an obligation may be transferred by the owner. Upon the death of the owner, it passes to the owner's personal representatives except when in the cases provided by law it passes to the owner's devisees…

The author of any product of the mind, whether it is an invention, a composition in letters or art, a design, with or without delineation or other graphical representation, has an exclusive ownership therein and in the representation or expression thereof which continues as long …

Unless otherwise agreed, a product of the mind in the production of which several persons are concerned jointly is owned by them as follows: 1. If the product is single, in equal proportions; or 2. If it is not single, in proportion to the contribution of each.

The owner of any product of the mind, or of any representation or expression thereof, may transfer the owner's property in the same.

If the owner of a product of the mind intentionally makes it public, a copy or reproduction may be made public by any person without responsibility to the owner so far as the law of this state is concerned.

If the owner of a product of the mind does not make it public, any other person subsequently and originally producing the same thing has the same right therein as the prior author, and such right is exclusive to the same extent against all persons except the prior author, or thos…

Letters and other private communications in writing belong to the person to whom they are addressed and delivered. They cannot be published, however, against the will of the writer except by authority of law.

The goodwill of a business is the expectation of continued public patronage, but it does not include a right to use the name of any person from whom it was acquired.

The goodwill of a business is property transferable in the same manner as any other.

One who sells the goodwill of a business thereby warrants that the seller will not endeavor to draw off any of the customers.

Instruments essential to the title of real property which are not kept in a public office as a record pursuant to law belong to the person in whom, for the time being, such title may be vested, and pass with the title.

Every nonprofit or noncounty museum in this state which is loaned or receives by donation any object for public display or safekeeping must keep a record of those objects. The record must indicate the owner or owners of the loaned objects and their addresses. A duplicate of the r…

When things which belong to different owners have been united so as to form a single thing and cannot be separated without injury, the whole belongs to the owner of the thing which forms the principal part, but such owner must reimburse the value of the residue to the other owner…

The principal part shall mean that part to which the other has been united only for the use, ornament, or completion of the former, unless the latter is the more valuable and has been united without the knowledge of its owner, who in the latter case, may require it to be separate…

If one makes a thing from materials belonging to another, the latter may claim the thing on reimbursing the value of the workmanship unless the value of the workmanship exceeds the value of the materials, in which case the thing belongs to the maker, on reimbursing the value of t…

In all cases where one whose materials have been used without the person's knowledge in order to form a product of a different description can claim an interest in such product, the person has an option to demand either restitution of the person's materials in kind in the same qu…

One who wrongfully employs materials belonging to another is liable to that person in damages in addition to any other liability prescribed by this chapter.

Transfer is an act of the parties or of the law by which the title to property is conveyed from one living person to another.

Property of any kind may be transferred except: 1. A mere possibility not coupled with an interest. 2. A mere right of re-entry or of repossession for breach of a condition subsequent which cannot be transferred to anyone except the owner of the property affected thereby.

A voluntary transfer is an executed contract, subject to all rules of law concerning contracts in general except that a consideration is not necessary to its validity.

A transfer may be made without writing in every case in which a writing is not required expressly by statute.

A transfer in writing is called a grant, or conveyance, or bill of sale. The term "grant" in this title includes all these instruments unless it is specially applied to real property.

A grant takes effect so as to vest the interest intended to be transferred only upon its delivery by the grantor and is presumed to have been delivered at its date. 47-09-07. Delivery must be absolute - Conditional delivery ineffective, becomes absolute. A grant cannot be deliver…