Bill Text: MI HB5866 | 2015-2016 | 98th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Criminal procedure; evidence; presumption that certain documents affecting real property are forged or counterfeit; create. Amends sec. 248b of 1931 PA 328 (MCL 750.248b).
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2016-09-14 - Bill Electronically Reproduced 09/13/2016 [HB5866 Detail]
Download: Michigan-2015-HB5866-Introduced.html
HOUSE BILL No. 5866
September 13, 2016, Introduced by Rep. Love and referred to the Committee on Judiciary.
A bill to amend 1931 PA 328, entitled
"The Michigan penal code,"
by amending section 248b (MCL 750.248b), as added by 2011 PA 206.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
Sec. 248b. (1) A person who falsely makes, alters, forges, or
counterfeits a deed, a discharge of mortgage, or a power or letter
of attorney or other document that affects an interest in real
property with intent to injure or defraud another person is guilty
of a felony punishable by imprisonment for not more than 14 years.
(2) This section does not apply to a scrivener's error.
(3) The venue in a prosecution under this section may be in
the
county in which the forgery was performed, ; in a county in
which the false, altered, forged, or counterfeit document is
uttered
and published with intent to injure or defraud, ; or in the
county in which the rightful property owner resides.
(4) In proceedings that result in a conviction under this
section or for any lesser included offense, the circuit court shall
enter an order stating that the false, altered, forged, or
counterfeit document is invalid and require that a certified copy
of the court order with the invalid document, if not previously
recorded, be attached and recorded in the office of the register of
deeds of the county where the subject property or part of the
property is located, as provided in section 2935 of the revised
judicature act of 1961, 1961 PA 236, MCL 600.2935. If the invalid
document has previously been recorded, the prosecutor shall provide
the circuit court with the liber and page number or unique
identifying reference number of the invalid document, which shall
be included in the order. The register of deeds shall make
reference to the liber and page number or unique identifying
reference number of the invalid document in the index of the
recorded documents. Any recording fees incurred under this
subsection shall be paid as ordered by the court.
(5) If the register of deeds or the office of the great seal
determines and testifies that a notary public attestation and
signature affixed to a document offered as evidence in a
prosecution under this section is 1 of the following, it shall be
presumed that the document is false, counterfeit, or fraudulent:
(a) The secretary of state has no record of appointing the
listed notary public.
(b) The notary public was appointed a notary public, but the
notary public testifies that he or she did not witness the signing
of the document in question.
(6) The presumption described in subsection (5) may be
rebutted by clear and convincing evidence.
Enacting section 1. This amendatory act takes effect 90 days
after the date it is enacted into law.
