649.5 - DEMAND FOR QUITCLAIM -- ATTORNEY FEES.
649.5 DEMAND FOR QUITCLAIM -- ATTORNEY FEES. If a party, twenty days or more before bringing suit to quiet a title to real estate, requests of the person holding an apparent adverse interest or right therein the execution of a quitclaim deed thereto, and also tenders to the person one dollar and twenty-five cents to cover the expense of the execution and delivery of the deed, and if the person refuses or neglects to comply, the filing of a disclaimer of interest or right shall not avoid the costs in an action afterwards brought, and the court may, in its discretion, if the plaintiff succeeds, assess, in addition to the ordinary costs of court, an attorney fee for plaintiff's attorney, not exceeding twenty-five dollars if there is but a single tract not exceeding forty acres in extent, or a single lot in a city, involved, and forty dollars, if but a single tract exceeding forty acres and not more than eighty acres. In cases in which two or more tracts are included that may not be embraced in one description, or single tracts covering more than eighty acres, or two or more city lots, a reasonable fee may be assessed, not exceeding, proportionately, those provided for in this section.
Section History: Early Form [C97, § 4226; C24, 27, 31, 35, 39, § 12289; C46, 50, 54, 58, 62, 66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, § 649.5]
Section History: Recent Form 86 Acts, ch 1237, § 37