45 N.H. 556 | N.H. | 1864
A decrease in the means of a town, after a highway has been laid out, might in some cases constitute such a change of circumstances as would warrant a discontinuance of the highway; for the urgency of the public need and the amount of the accommodation which the highway would afford, might not be sufficient to justify the imposition of the burden on the town. Winship v. Enfield, 42 N. H. 206; Dudley v. Cilley, 5 N. H. 561; Petition of Goffstown, 43 N. H. 200.
Here the commissioners have not found such a state-of facts, for they merely report, that, since the laying out, the town has become so involved in debt that the building of the road would be burdensome; and this may be true, and yet the public good may require the imposition of the burden. Nor do the commissioners state the facts showing that by reason of the debt incurred since the laying out, the burden on the town would be so increased as to affect the expediency of laying out the proposed highway. Perhaps, however, if this were all the reason given, as it might be sufficient under some circumstances, the court would not revise the decision of the commissioners. Petition of Hopkinton, 27 N. H. 139. This is not, however, a reason conclusive as to the propriety of a discontinuance, like the construction of roads found by the commissioners to obviate the necessity of the proposed highway, as in Hampstead’s Petition, 19 N. H. 349, and another matter is stated as 'one of the reasons which induced the commissioners to-report in favor of a discontimrance.
If we were to assume that there might be such a change of circumstances as would require a new highway obviating the necessity of the one in question, and that this might properly be considered by the commissioners, still we could not hold that the facts stated in the second
The report must he recommitted.