83 Neb. 581 | Neb. | 1909
E. Austin, road overseer of district 59, in Cass county, in December, 1906, served a written notice on the plaintiff that her fence was in the public highway running north and south on the half section line through section 25, township 10, range 13, in Cass county, Nebraska, and directing her .to remove her fence to a line 33 feet west of said half section line. The notice further stated that, unless its terms were complied with on or before the 10th of January, 1907, the overseer would himself proceed to remove the fence. Shortly thereafter this action was commenced to enjoin the overseer and the county of Cass from interfering with the plaintiff’s fence or Jrom trespassing in any manner upon her premises. A temporary injunction was issued, which upon the trial was made perpetual as to a portion of plaintiff’s land claimed by the county as a highway, and' dissolved as to another part of plaintiff’s land, which the court found to be within the boundary of a regularly established road. Plaintiff has appealed from so much of the decree as' found a regularly laid out road over any part of the land in dispute.
It was stipulated on the trial that prior to the year 1869 a legal highway had been established along and near the half section line running north and south through the center of sections 24 and 25, township 10, range 13, in
It is the contention of the plaintiff that no highway has been established along the half section line through sections 24 and 25. The statute of 1867 (ch. 47, sec. 19) under which the county claims the highway in question was established required a notice to be posted on the courthouse door and at three other public places in the vicinity of the road sought to be located, changed, or discontinued, setting forth the time when application therefor would be made to the commissioners. There is nothing in the record before us showing that such notice was given in this case, but it is shown that the petition for the change was signed by 12 residents, who described themselves as owning the land on the half section line, and it
It is conceded that a portion of the land claimed as a highway has been inclosed by the plaintiff and her grantors for 20 years or more, and this fact, if the road had not been legally established, and the county.was claiming only a prescriptive right, would entitle the plaintiff to hold the part so- inclosed as her absolute property. While the width of the road was not designated in the petition therefor, nor in the report of the commissioners establishing the same, the statute at that time required that all public highways should be 66 feet in width, and, as this highway Avas regularly established and has been in use by the public since 1869, it must be conclusively presumed that it Avas established as a legal road 66 feet in width; and the fact that it has not been worked or used to its full width, and that some portion of it has been inclosed by the plaintiff, does not vest her Avith any title thereto, as title by prescription cannot be obtained to a public highway. Krueger v. Jenkins, 59 Neb. 641; Lydick v. State, 61 Neb. 309.
The facts established leave the question beyond any doubt that the road is a statutory road and that the public are-entitled to a use of its full width. We recommend an affirmance to the judgment appealed from. '
By the Court: For the reasons stated in the-foregoing opinion, the judgment of the district court is
Affirmed.