Title 43, PROPERTY

Every licensed engineer, architect, or surveyor shall be authorized to administer oaths to draftsmen, chainmen, rodmen, instrumentmen, and other assistants, who may be assisting them or participating in any work in which said engineer, architect, or surveyor is engaged in the pra…

It is a Class 2 misdemeanor to injure, destroy, deface, or remove any monument erected by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey or the United States Geological Survey. Source: SL 1919, ch 352 ; SDC 1939, §§ 18.0203, 18.9903; SL 1983, ch 15 , § 7.

No United States government survey corner nor any corner established by any registered land surveyor may be disturbed, removed, or in any manner changed by any person in the prosecution of any public or private work. A violation of this section is a petty offense. Source: SL 1893…

Any registered land surveyor may restore, relocate, or reference a survey corner if same is recorded as provided by statute. Source: SL 1893, ch 157 , § 12; RPolC 1903, § 134; RC 1919, § 8203; SDC 1939, § 18.0202; SL 1970, ch 214 , § 41.

The resurvey and subdivision of lands by all surveyors shall be in all respects according to the laws of the United States and the instructions issued by the officers thereof in charge of the public land surveys; and in the subdivision of fractional sections, bounded on any side …

In retracing lines or making the survey the surveyor shall take care to observe and follow the boundaries and monuments as run and marked by the original survey, but shall not give undue weight to partial and doubtful evidence or appearances of monuments, the recognition of which…

Whenever the survey made is of lines or monuments in dispute, or by order of any court, the chainmen must be disinterested persons, approved and sworn by the surveyor to measure justly and impartially to the best of their skill and ability. Source: PolC 1877, ch 21, § 100; CL 188…

The record of the field notes and plats shall show distinctly of what piece of land it is a survey, at whose request it was made, what owners were notified and present, the date of the survey, the names of the chainmen, and that they were approved and sworn by the surveyor, when …

Whenever a civil township meeting shall have lawfully ordered the erection of landmarks, the board of supervisors shall procure a sufficient number of monuments of stone, or other durable material, each not less than thirty inches in length and six inches square, flat top, having…

If such petition shall be granted, and in case no stay bond shall have been given upon an appeal from the order granting the petition, the board of county commissioners shall immediately proceed to procure monuments for such landmarks, and shall contract with a registered land su…

The surveyor with whom a contract is made pursuant to § 43-19-10 shall give bond as provided in this chapter, except that such surveyor's bond shall run to the county for the use of the township and such bond may be sued on by the county, and any judgment recovered thereon shall …

Sections 43-19-4 and 43-19-5 shall apply to and govern such survey and the certificate thereof and the recording of the surveyor's certificate. Source: SL 1901, ch 204 , § 2; RPolC 1903, § 1157; RC 1919, § 6146; SDC 1939, § 58.1206.

In case any board of county commissioners shall grant any petition presented thereto under this chapter, such board shall ascertain the amount of money requisite for such purpose, and shall add such amount to the other amounts, if any, to be raised for township purposes in any su…

In case any petition presented under this chapter shall have been granted after the time of making the annual tax levy, such specific levy shall be made at the time of making the annual tax levy for the ensuing year; and the amount so levied shall be inserted in the tax roll and …

All landmarks set under authority of this chapter shall be presumptively deemed to be at the section and quarter section corners, as originally established by the United States survey, at which they respectively purport to be set. Source: SL 1901, ch 204 , § 3; RPolC 1903, § 1158…

Nothing in this chapter shall authorize the changing of any section corner established by the United States survey. Source: SL 1901, ch 204 , § 3; RPolC 1903, § 1158; RC 1919, § 6147; SDC 1939, § 58.1208.

Whenever section corners upon the public highways cannot be identified the township board of supervisors may, without previous vote of the township meeting, have such corners located by a competent surveyor and cause landmarks similar to those described in § 43-19-1 to be erected…

The surveyor with whom a contract is made pursuant to § 43-19-1 shall, before the signing and delivery of such contract, give a bond to the township in the sum of one thousand dollars, with sufficient sureties, to be approved by the board, conditioned that he will make a correct …

Such landmarks shall in all cases be set on section corners and quarter posts established by the United States survey, but if there be a clerical error or omission in the government field notes, or the bearing trees, mounds, or other locating evidences specified therein be destro…

Such surveyor shall make, in all cases, a certificate setting forth correct and full minutes of the survey, and giving exact bearings and distances of each monument from each other monument nearest it on any line in the township, and such statement shall be recorded in the office…

In case any township shall vote in favor of the erection of permanent landmarks, the township board shall ascertain the amount of money requisite for such purpose, and deliver a statement of such amount to the township clerk, who shall add such amount to the other amounts to be r…

Whenever two - thirds of all the owners of lands situated in any unorganized township shall petition the board of county commissioners for a survey of the sections and the establishment of section and quarter section landmarks in such township, and that such board procure materia…

Any person interested in any real property in such township may appear and be heard, for or against the granting of the petition, on the day named in such notice. After a hearing is had upon the petition the board shall by order grant or deny the petition. Source: SL 1901, ch 204…

Any person feeling aggrieved by the granting of the petition may appeal from the order granting the same to the circuit court, at any time within thirty days after the order from which the appeal is taken was made. But no stay of proceedings upon such petition shall be had pendin…

It is the purpose of this chapter to protect and perpetuate public land survey corners and information concerning the location of such corners by requiring the systematic establishment of monuments and filing of information concerning the marking of the location of such public la…

The register of deeds of the county in which the corner is located shall charge a recording fee of ten dollars. Source: SL 1967, ch 58 , § 7 (c); SL 1983, ch 305 , § 1; SL 1989, ch 380 ; SL 2012, ch 51 , § 6.

All filings relative to official cadastral surveys of the Bureau of Land Management of the United States of America performed by authorized personnel shall be exempt from filing fees. Source: SL 1967, ch 58 , § 11.

The county register of deeds of the county containing the corner shall receive the completed corner record and preserve it in a hardbound book. The books shall be numbered in numerical order and indexed by legal description showing section, township, and range (or addition, block…

The register of deeds shall make these records available for public inspection during all usual office hours. Source: SL 1967, ch 58 , § 7 (b); SL 1982, ch 297 , § 4.

This chapter may be cited as the "Corner Perpetuation and Filing Act." Source: SL 1967, ch 58 , § 1.

Terms used in this chapter mean: (1) "Accessory to a corner," any exclusively identifiable physical object whose spatial relationship to the corner is recorded. The term includes bearing trees, bearing objects, monuments, reference monuments, line trees, pits, mounds, charcoal-fi…

A surveyor shall complete, sign, and file with the register of deeds of the county where the corner is situated, a written record of corner establishment or restoration to be known as a "corner file" for every public land survey corner and accessory to the corner which is establi…

A surveyor may file such corner record as to any property corner, property controlling corner, reference monument, or accessory to a corner. Source: SL 1967, ch 58 , § 5.

In every case where a corner record of a public land survey corner is required to be filed under the provisions of this chapter, the surveyor must reconstruct or rehabilitate the monument of such corner, and accessories to such corner, so that the same shall be left by him in suc…

Corner records may be filed concerning corners established, reestablished, or restored before July 1, 1967. Source: SL 1967, ch 58 , § 10.

The board shall, by rule adopted pursuant to chapter 1-26 , prescribe the method of construction and placement of corner markers or monuments used to identify reference points on plats and the information that is necessary to be included in the corner file. The board shall prescr…

No corner record shall be filed unless the same is signed by a registered surveyor, or, in the case of an agency of the United States government the certificate may be signed by the survey party chief making the survey. Source: SL 1967, ch 58 , § 9.

No filing shall be of any force or legal effect unless and until filed as provided in this chapter. Source: SL 1967, ch 58 , § 12.

When any owner of a government subdivision or a platted tract or lot which is within or without the corporate limits of any municipality shall divide the same into parcels for the purpose of transfer that cannot be described except by metes and bounds, he shall cause the parcels …

If the owner of any parcel or lot of land that has been divided as set forth in § 43-21-1 shall refuse or neglect to cause such plat and survey to be made and recorded within thirty days after written request by the county auditor at the direction of the board of county commissio…

When the owner of such divided parcels of land fails to comply with the provisions of § 43-21-1 , the cost of platting and recording, and surveying when necessary, shall be paid by the county and the amount thereof shall be added to the tax upon such tract or lot of land the next…

Such plat being duly certified and recorded, a description of the property in accordance with the numbers and description set forth in such plat shall be deemed a good and valid description of the lots or parcels of land so described. Source: SL 1895, ch 154 , § 3; RPolC 1903, § …

Conveyances describing real property by metes and bounds shall be recorded if a previous conveyance by the same metes and bounds has been made and recorded. Source: SL 1979, ch 293 .

Each plat of real property acquired by the forest service of the United States Department of Agriculture, the State Department of Transportation, the South Dakota Building Authority, and the several counties and municipalities of the State of South Dakota and, which plat is subsc…

Notwithstanding the provisions of § 43-21-5 , copies of plats filed in accordance therewith shall be furnished to the director of equalization in each county wherein such plat is to be filed within ten days after such filing. Source: SL 1971, ch 247 .

The most recent system of plane coordinates established by the National Geodetic Survey for defining and stating the geographic positions or locations of points on, within, or above the surface of the earth within the State of South Dakota are hereafter to be known and designated…