If such action be for recovery for loss or damage arising only through any omission, mistake, or misfeasance of the registrar of titles or his or her deputies, or of any examiner of titles, or any clerk of court or his or her deputy, in the performance of their respective duties, under the provisions of this chapter, then the county treasurer shall be the sole defendant to such action; but if such action be brought for loss or damage arising only through the fraud or wrongful act of some person or persons other than the registrar or his or her deputies, the examiners of title, the clerk of the court or his or her deputies, or arising jointly through the fraud or wrongful act of such other person or persons, and the omission, mistakes, or misfeasance of the registrar of titles or his or her deputies, the examiners of titles, the clerk of the court or his or her deputies, then such action shall be brought against both the county treasurer and such persons or persons aforesaid. In all such actions, where there are defendants other than the county treasurer, and damages shall have been recovered, no final judgment shall be entered against the county treasurer, until execution against the other defendants shall be returned unsatisfied in whole or in part, and the officer returning the execution shall certify that the amount still due upon the execution cannot be collected except by application to the indemnity assurance fund. Thereupon the court, being satisfied as to the truth of such return, shall order final judgment against the treasurer, for the amount of the execution and costs, or so much thereof as remains unpaid. The county treasurer shall, upon such order of the court and final judgment, pay the amount of such judgment out of the assurance fund. It shall be the duty of the county attorney to appear and defend all such actions. If the funds in the assurance funds at any time are insufficient to pay any judgment in full, the balance unpaid shall draw interest at the legal rate of interest, and be paid with such interest out of the first funds coming into said fund.
[ 2012 c 117 § 257; 1907 c 250 § 85; RRS § 10714.]