Courts of record within their respective jurisdictions shall have power to declare rights, status, and other legal relations whether or not further relief is or could be claimed. No action or proceeding shall be open to objection on the ground that a declaratory judgment or decree is prayed for. The declaration may be either affirmative or negative in form and effect; and such declaration shall have the force and effect of a final judgment or decree.
S.D. Codified Laws § 21-24-1
Power of courts to provide declaratory relief--Form and effect of declarations
Known as the Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act
The act spans §§ 21–21 (16 sections).
Applied in 20 court decisions — leading case Kneip v. Herseth (1974)
Most recently applied in Jensen, Hoffman v. Dep't of Corrections (July 2025)
Source: SL 1925, ch 214, § 1; SDC 1939 & Supp 1960, § 37.0101.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.