Rule 96.15.Commissioners' Report.

Rule 96.15 defines what the commissioners must produce after they carry out — or attempt — a physical division of the land. The rule requires a written report, and it spells out three possible outcomes the report may describe: a completed division with a description of the land and the specific shares allotted to each party; a finding that partition cannot be made at all without great prejudice to the owners; or a finding that partition can be made only of part of the land, leaving the rest unsuited to division.

Beyond describing the outcome, the report must also list the expenses the commissioners incurred in carrying out their work. This expense listing feeds directly into the compensation and cost-taxing provisions found in Rule 96.13, giving the court the information it needs to fix and tax those amounts as costs.

The rule also imposes a formality requirement borrowed from real estate conveyancing: the report must be proved or acknowledged the same way a deed must be proved or acknowledged to qualify for recording. That formal execution requirement underscores how seriously the report is treated — it functions almost like a title document, since it establishes exactly what land each party now owns. Once properly executed, the report is filed with the clerk of the court, setting up the next step under Rule 96.16, where the clerk notifies the parties and any exceptions to the report can be filed.