Effective 28 Aug 1991

443.060. Acknowledgment of satisfaction and release, how made. — 1. If any mortgagee, cestui que trust or assignee, or personal representative of the mortgagee, cestui que trust or assignee, receive full satisfaction of any security instrument, he shall, at the request and cost of the person making the same, deliver to such person a sufficient deed of release of the security instrument; but it shall not in any case be necessary for the trustee to join in such deed of release. In the case of security instruments recorded prior to January 1, 1986, if a full deed of release is offered for record, and except as otherwise provided in subsection 3 of this section, the note or notes secured shall be produced and cancelled in the presence of the recorder, who shall enter that fact on the deed of release prior to its recordation and attest the same with his official signature; and except as otherwise provided in subsection 3 of this section, no full deed of release of such a security instrument shall be admitted to record unless the note or notes are so produced and cancelled, and that fact entered on the deed of release and attested as above provided.

2. If such note or notes are required by subsection 1 of this section to be presented for cancellation and are not presented for the alleged reason that they have been lost or destroyed, the recorder, before allowing any deed of release to be placed on the file or record, shall require the mortgagee or cestui que trust named in the security instrument desired to be released or his legal representative, to make oath, in writing, stating that the note or other evidences of debt named in the security instrument sought to be released have been paid and delivered to the maker thereof or his representative. The recorder shall also require the maker of such note or notes, or his legal representative, to make affidavit, in writing, that the note or notes in question have been paid, and cannot be produced because lost or destroyed, and that they are not then in the possession of any person having any lawful claim to the same. If such note or notes shall not have been delivered to the maker or his legal representative, the affidavit so required of the mortgagee or cestui que trust or his legal representative shall recite that the note or other evidence of the debt named in the security instrument has been paid and cannot be produced because lost or destroyed, and that it is* not then in the possession of any person having any lawful claim to the same. The term "legal representatives" as used in this section shall include assigns. The affidavit of the maker of such note or notes or his legal representative shall recite that such note or notes have been paid. The affidavits so required shall be recorded in the same manner as deeds, in a permanent record. Nothing in this chapter shall be so construed as to require that any interest coupon notes shall be produced and cancelled in the presence of the recorder, but that all such interest coupon notes shall conclusively be taken and be deemed to have been paid in full, when the principal note described in the security instrument shall have been produced and cancelled in the presence of the recorder as provided for in this chapter.

3. In case any mortgagee, cestui que trust or assignee, or personal representative of the mortgagee, cestui que trust or assignee shall desire to release the property described in any security instrument recorded prior to January 1, 1986, without receiving full satisfaction of the debt, note or obligation thereby secured, he shall be permitted to do so by the recorder on presentation to the recorder of the notes or other obligations evidencing the principal of the debt secured thereby, or accounting for them by affidavits or otherwise as now or hereafter provided by law in the case of full release, and the recorder shall note the fact of the filing for record of such release on such notes or obligations in substantially the following form:

­­and of the presentation of such notes or other obligations, or accounting therefor, on the deed of release prior to its recordation, but shall not cancel such notes or other obligations. Nothing in this section shall be construed as making it necessary for any trustee named in the security instrument to join in such deed of release.

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(RSMo 1939 § 3465, A.L. 1975 H.B. 226, A.L. 1985 H.B. 210, A.L. 1991 S.B. 364)

Prior revisions: 1929 § 3078; 1919 § 2237; 1909 § 2844

*Words "they are" appear in original rolls.

(1996) This section requires a deed of release be delivered to the party making the satisfaction. Masterson v. Roosevelt Bank, 919 S.W.2d 9 (Mo.App.E.D.).