Any person interested under a deed, will, written contract, or other writing constituting a contract, or whose rights, status, or other legal relations are affected by a statute, municipal ordinance, contract, or franchise, may have determined any question of construction or validity arising under the instrument, statute, ordinance, contract, or franchise and obtain a declaration of rights, status, or other legal relations thereunder.
S.D. Codified Laws § 21-24-3
Construction and determination of validity of written instruments, legislative acts, and franchises
Known as the Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act
The act spans §§ 21-24-1 to 21-24-9 (16 sections).
Applied in 21 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, § 2; SDC 1939 & Supp 1960, § 37.0102.
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.