S-4628               _______________________________________________

                                                   SENATE BILL NO. 6865

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                               51st Legislature                              1990 Regular Session

By Senator McCaslin

Read first time 2/1/90 and referred to Committee on  Financial Institutions & Insurance.

AN ACT Relating to satisfaction of mortgages; amending RCW 61.16.020 and 61.16.030; and prescribing civil penalties.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

        Sec. 1.  Section 1, page 116, Laws of 1886 as last amended by section 13, chapter 44, Laws of 1985 and RCW 61.16.020 are each amended to read as follows:

          Whenever the amount due on any mortgage is paid, the mortgagee, his legal representatives or assigns, shall((, at the request of any person interested in the property mortgaged,)) execute an instrument in writing referring to the mortgage by the volume and page of the record or otherwise sufficiently describing it and acknowledging satisfaction in full thereof.  ((Said)) The instrument shall be duly acknowledged, and ((upon request)) shall be recorded in the county wherein the mortgaged property is situated.  Every instrument of writing heretofore recorded and purporting to be a satisfaction of mortgage, which sufficiently describes the mortgage which it purports to satisfy so that the same may be readily identified, and which has been duly acknowledged before an officer authorized by law to take acknowledgments or oaths, is hereby declared legal and valid, and a certified copy of the record thereof is hereby constituted prima facie evidence of such satisfaction.

        Sec. 2.  Section 2, page 117, Laws of 1886 as amended by section 1, chapter 14, Laws of 1984 and RCW 61.16.030 are each amended to read as follows:

          If the mortgagee fails to acknowledge satisfaction of the mortgage as provided in RCW 61.16.020  ((sixty)) thirty days from the date ((of such request or demand)) that the amount due on the mortgage is received, he shall forfeit and pay to the mortgagor the greater of the mortgagor's damages or one hundred dollars per business day the acknowledgement is delinquent and a reasonable attorneys' fee, to be recovered in any court having competent jurisdiction, and said court, when convinced that said mortgage has been fully satisfied, shall issue an order in writing, directing the auditor to cancel said mortgage, and the auditor shall immediately record the order and cancel the mortgage as directed by the court, upon the margin of the page upon which the mortgage is recorded, making reference thereupon to the order of the court and to the page where the order is recorded.