§ 47-33b — Marketable record title. Definitions.

As used in sections 47-33b to 47-33 l, inclusive: (a) “Marketable record title” means a title of record which operates to extinguish such interests and claims, existing prior to the effective date of the root of title, as are stated in section 47-33e ; (b) “Records” means the land records of the town where the particular land is located; (c) “Recorded” means recorded as provided by section 47-10 or section 49-5 , as the case may be; (d) “Person dealing with land” includes a purchaser of any estate or interest therein, a mortgagee, an attaching or judgment creditor, a land contract vendee, or any other person seeking to acquire an estate or interest therein, or impose a lien thereon; (e) “Root of title” means that conveyance or other title transaction in the chain of title of a person, purporting to create or containing language sufficient to transfer the interest claimed by such person, upon which he relies as a basis for the marketability of his title, and which was the most recent to be recorded as of a date forty years prior to the time when marketability is being determined. The effective date of the root of title is the date on which it is recorded; (f) “Title transaction” means any transaction affecting title to any interest in land, including, but not limited to, title by will or descent, by public sale, by trustee's, referee's, guardian's, executor's, administrator's, conservator's or committee deed, by warranty or quitclaim deed, by mortgage or by decree of any court.

Legislative History

(1967, P.A. 553, S. 1; 1969, P.A. 509, S. 1; P.A. 78-105, S. 1, 4.) History: 1969 act redefined “root of title” to change marker date for most recent conveyance or other title transaction from 60 to 40 years before time when marketability is being determined; P.A. 78-105 redefined “root of title” to include conveyances or title transactions “containing language sufficient to transfer” interest claimed. Cited. 183 C. 59; 219 C. 81; 239 C. 199. Reaffirmed previous holdings that Marketable Title Act extinguishes only those property interests that once existed and cannot be used to create an easement where grantor had no legal right to make the grant. 254 C. 502. Trial court properly determined that Marketable Title Act was not a special defense that had to be pleaded affirmatively by defendants, and it properly placed on plaintiff the burden of proving validity of easement under the act. 270 C. 487. Cited. 3 CA 550; 44 CA 683; 46 CA 525. Marketable Title Act applies and renders void an equitable claim to a constructive trust in farm. 130 CA 100. Cited. 34 CS 31. Vague and general reference to “right of way” in chain of title is insufficient notice of existence of an easement and therefore null and void under Marketable Title Act; the reason that a general reference to pre-root of title interests is not sufficient to preserve or prevent extinguishment of those interests is to avoid necessity to search record back to the root of title, as well as to eliminate uncertainties caused by such general references. 51 CS 399.