Rule 96.14.Commissioners to Make Affidavit and Give Notice to Parties.

Rule 96.14 builds two safeguards into the commissioners' work before they ever set foot on the property. First, the commissioners must take an oath — an affidavit before someone qualified to administer oaths — promising to execute the trust the court has placed in them with impartiality and good faith. This affidavit is not just a formality spoken and forgotten; it must be filed along with their eventual report, creating a permanent record that the commissioners committed to impartiality at the outset.

Second, the rule protects the parties' ability to participate in the process. Commissioners must give the parties at least ten days' notice of when they intend to perform their duties. That advance notice lets owners attend, point out boundaries or features relevant to a fair division, and raise concerns before the commissioners finalize their approach — instead of being presented with a division already completed without any chance to weigh in.

Both requirements protect the integrity of a process that hands significant discretion to three private citizens temporarily acting as officers of the court. The oath guards against bias or self-dealing, while the notice requirement guards against a division carried out in a way that excludes the people whose property rights are at stake. This rule was last amended in 1993.