Any deed, mortgage, pleading in court or other instrument affecting real estate may describe such real estate by reference to the description thereof contained in or shown by one or more maps, plats, descriptions, deeds, mortgages or other instruments of record in the office of the county clerk of the county in which the affected real estate is located, and such instrument containing such description or descriptions by reference shall be legally sufficient for all purposes to the same extent as if the description or descriptions referred to therein had been fully set forth therein; provided, that the instrument containing any such description by reference must show the time and place of filing or recordation of the instrument containing the description referred to, or other similar information, so that said instrument containing the description referred to can be located and identified.

History: 1941 Comp., § 75-123, enacted by Laws 1943, ch. 90, § 1; 1953 Comp., § 70-1-44.

Section is applicable to tax deeds. Hughes v. Meem, 1962-NMSC-039, 70 N.M. 122, 371 P.2d 235.

Description may appear in separate instrument referred to in deed. — It is not necessary that the description of the land be contained in the body of the deed. It is sufficient if it refers for identification to some other instrument or document, but the description must be contained in the instrument or its reference, express or implied, with such certainty that the locality of the land can be ascertained. This rule has also been held to apply to maps and plats, including surveys, and to an assessor's plan. The deed is not void because the instrument referred to is incomplete, not official, unacknowledged, unrecorded or unattached, or is misdescribed in some particular, or even invalid. Hughes v. Meem, 1962-NMSC-039, 70 N.M. 122, 371 P.2d 235.

Description enables identification of land. — The purpose of a description of the land, which is the subject matter of a deed of conveyance, is to identify such subject matter; and it may be laid down as a broad general principle that a deed will not be declared void for uncertainty in description if it is possible by any reasonable rules of construction to ascertain from the description, aided by extrinsic evidence, what property is intended to be conveyed. It is sufficient if the description in the deed or conveyance furnishes a means of identification of the land or by which the property conveyed can be located. So, if a surveyor with the deed before him can, with the aid of extrinsic evidence if necessary, locate the land and establish its boundaries, the description therein is sufficient. Hughes v. Meem, 1962-NMSC-039, 70 N.M. 122, 371 P.2d 235.

Extrinsic evidence allowed. — This section is permissive. A deed may describe real estate by reference but the section is not mandatory. Its purpose is not to preclude extrinsic evidence. Whether the map was filed in the clerk's office is wholly immaterial. Hughes v. Meem, 1962-NMSC-039, 70 N.M. 122, 371 P.2d 235.

Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — 23 Am. Jur. 2d Deeds §§ 48, 50, 61 to 64, 312, 313, 315, 316, 319.