If, at the time the plaintiff sustained the injury, the town of Wloscoio was, by law obliged to keep in repair the road where that injury happened, as a public highway, then the exceptions to the decision of the court below must be sustained. By statute, ch. 500, sec. 7, it is made the duty of the county commissioners to fix the time within which the several towns through which any highway may be laid out, shall open and make the same. Although this is not the precise phraseology of the former statute, upon the same subject, ch. 118, sec. 12, yet there can bo no doubt but the meaning of the words, “ open and malee, the same,” in the late statute, was understood by the legislature to be the same as those used in the earlier statute, viz.: “to make the road passable, safe and convenient for travellers and others passing with their teams, waggons, or ether carriages.”
The county commissioners, in laying out- the road where the injury happened, acted under the last statute, ch. 500, and, no doubt, intended, by allowing the town one year to “ open” the
The placing the log across the old road and stopping it up, was an infringement upon the rights of the public, but it does not affect the plaintiff’s case. If a public highway be incumbered, the town, whose duty it is to repair, is answerable for neglecting
It was said, in the argument, that the town had dedicated the road to the public, and ought to be liable for damages arising from neglect to repair. There is no evidence of any dedication, that we can perceive, in the case ; and no such continued user as throws any liabilities on the town. Todd v. Rome, 2 Greenl. 55; Rowell v. Montville, 4 Greenl. 270. Upon the whole, we think the judge below decided correctly, that the town was not, by law, bound to complete and keep said road in repair, until the year allowed for opening the same had expired, and consequently, that the evidence offered was properly excluded.
The exceptions are overruled and the nonsuit confirmed.
