It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:

SECTION 1. Title 34 of the General Laws entitled "Property" is hereby amended by adding thereto the following chapter:

(a) "Marketable record title" means a title of record which operates to extinguish such interest and claims, existing prior to the effective date of the root of title as are stated in section 34-13.1-4.

(b) "Records" means the Land Evidence Records of the town or city where the particular land is located;

(c) "Recorded" means recorded as provided by chapter 34-13;

(d) "Person dealing with land" includes a purchaser of any estate or interest therein, a mortgagee, an attaching or judgment creditor, or any other person seeking to acquire an estate or interest therein, or impose a lien thereon; ADD}

{ADD (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 (40) 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, title by tax deed, by public sale, by trustee's, referee's, guardian's, executor's, administrator's, conservator's, Tax collector's, sheriff's, commissioner's, constable's warranty or quitclaim deed, by mortgagee's deed or by decree of any court. ADD}

{ADD 34-13.1-2. Chain of title for not less than forty years creates marketable record title. -- ADD} {ADD Any person having legal capacity to own land in this State, who has an unbroken chain of title to any interest in land for forty years or more, shall be deemed to have a marketable record title to that interest, subject only to the matters stated in Section 34-13.1-3. A person has such an unbroken chain of title when the land records of the town in which the land is located disclose a conveyance or other title transaction, of record not less than forty (40) years at the time the marketability is to be determined, which conveyance or other title transaction purports to create such interest in land, or which contains language sufficient to transfer the interest, either in the person claiming that interest, or some other person from whom, by one or more conveyances or other title transactions of record, the purported interest has become vested in the person claiming the interest; with nothing appearing of record, in either case, purporting to divest the claimant of the purported interest. ADD}

{ADD 34-13.1-3 Interest to which title is subject. -- ADD} {ADD Such marketable record title is subject to: (1) All interests and defects which are created by or arise out of the muniments of which the chain of record title is formed; provided a general reference in the muniments, or any of them, to easements, use restrictions, encumbrances or other interests created prior to the root of title are not sufficient to preserve them, unless specific identification is made therein of a recorded title transaction which creates the easement, use restriction, encumbrance or other interest; (2) all interests preserved by the recording of proper notice or by possession by the same owner continuously for a period of forty (40) years or more, in accordance with Section 34-13.1-5; (3) the rights of any person arising from a period of adverse possession or use, which was in whole or in part subsequent to the effective date of the root of title; (4) any interest arising out of a title transaction which has been recorded subsequent to the effective date ADD} {ADD of the root of title from which the unbroken chain of title of record started; provided such recording shall not revive or give validity to any interest which has been extinguished prior to the time of the recording by the operation of Section 34-13.1-4; (5) the exceptions stated in Section 34-13.1-7 as to rights of reversioners in leases, as to apparent easements and interests in the nature of easements, and as to interests of the United States, this state and political subdivisions thereof, public service companies and natural gas companies. ADD}

{ADD 34-13.1-4. Prior interests void. -- ADD} {ADD Subject to the matters stated in Section 34-13.1-3 such marketable record title shall be held by its owner and such shall be taken by any person dealing with the land free and clear of all interests, claims or charges whatsoever, the existence of which depends upon any act, transaction, event or omission that occurred prior to the effective date of the root title. All such interests, claims or charges, however, denominated, whether legal or equitable, present or future, whether those interests, claims or charges are asserted by a person sui juris or under a disability, whether that a person is within or without the state, whether that person is natural or corporate is private or governmental, are hereby declared to be null and void. ADD}

{ADD 34-13.1-5. Notice of claim filed within forty (40) year period. -- ADD} {ADD (a) Any person claiming an interest of any kind in land may preserve and keep effective that interest by recording, during the forty (40) year period immediately following the effective date of the root title of the person whose record title would otherwise be marketable, a notice in writing, duly verified by oath, setting forth the nature of the claim. No disability or lack of knowledge of any kind on the part of anyone suspends the running of the forty (40) year period. Such notice may be recorded by the claimant or by any other person acting on behalf of any claimant who is: (1) Under a disability (2) unable to assert a claim on his or her own behalf or (3) one of a class, but whose identity cannot be established or is uncertain at the time of filing such notice of claim record. ADD}

{ADD (b) If the same record owner of any possessory interest in land has been in possession of that land continuously for a period of forty (40) years or more, during which period no title transaction with respect to the interest appears of record in his or her chain of title and no notice has been recorded by him or her on his or her behalf as provided in subsection (a) of this section, and the possession continues to the time when marketability is being determined, that period of possession shall be deemed equivalent to the recording of the notice immediately preceding the termination of the forty (40) year period described in subsection (a) of this section. ADD}

{ADD 34-13.1-6. Contents of notice -- Recording -- Indexing. -- ADD} {ADD (a) To be effective and to be entitled to recordation, the notice referred to in section 34-13.1-5 shall contain an accurate and full description of all land affected by the notice, which description shall be set forth in particular terms and not by general inclusions; but, if the claim asserted under section 34-13.1-5 is founded upon a recorded instrument, the description in the notice may be the same as that contained in the recorded instrument. In addition, each notice shall clearly state the then owner or owners of record of the property involved.

(b) Each notice shall be recorded in the land records of the town where the land described there is located. The notice shall be indexed in the grantors' index under the name or names of the owners of record as listed in the notice and in the grantees' index under the name of the claimant appearing in the notice. ADD}

{ADD 34-13.1-7. Excepted interests. -- ADD} {ADD This chapter shall not be applied to bar any lessor or his or her successor as a reversioner of his or her right to possession on the expiration of any lease or to bar or extinguish any easement or interest in the nature of an easement, or any rights granted, excepted or reserved by the instrument creating such easement or interest, including any right for future use, if the existence of such easement or interest is evidenced by the location beneath, upon or above any part of the land described in such instrument of any pipe, valve, road, wire, cable, conduit, duct, sewer, track, hole, tower or other physical facility and whether or not the existence of such facility is observable, or to bar, extinguish or otherwise affect any interest of the United States, of this state or any political subdivision thereof, of any public utility company as defined in section 39-1-2. ADD}

{ADD 34-13.1-8. Other statutes not affected. -- ADD} {ADD Nothing contained in this chapter shall be construed to extend the period for bringing an action or for doing any other required act under any statute of limitation, nor, except as herein specifically provided, to affect the operation of any statute governing the effect of the recording or the failure to record any instrument affecting land. ADD}

{ADD 34-13.1-9. Notice not to be recorded to slander title damages. -- ADD} {ADD No person may use the privilege of recording notices under sections 34-13.1-5 and 34-13.1-6 for the purpose of slandering the title to land. In any action brought for the purpose of quieting title to land, if the court finds that any person has recorded a claim for that purpose only, the court shall award the plaintiff all the costs of the action, including such attorneys' fees as the court may allow to the plaintiff, and in addition, shall decree that the defendant asserting the claim shall pay to the plaintiff all damages the plaintiff may have sustained as the result of such notice of claim having been so recorded. ADD}

{ADD 34-13.1-10. Construction. -- ADD} {ADD (a) This chapter shall be liberally construed to effect the legislative purpose of simplifying and facilitating land title transactions by allowing persons to rely on a record chain of title as described in section 34-13.1-2 subject only to such limitations as appear in section 34-13.1-3. ADD}

{ADD 34-13.1-11. Forty year period extended to all for recording of notice. -- ADD} {ADD If the forty (40) year period specified in this chapter has expired, or would expire, prior to two (2) years after the effective date of this statute, such period shall be extended two (2) years after the effective date of this statute to allow for the recording of notice pursuant to this chapter. ADD}

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect January 1, 1996.