Dahl v. Roach

287 P. 622, 76 Utah 74, 1930 Utah LEXIS 42
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedApril 24, 1930
DocketNo. 4645.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 287 P. 622 (Dahl v. Roach) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dahl v. Roach, 287 P. 622, 76 Utah 74, 1930 Utah LEXIS 42 (Utah 1930).

Opinion

FOLLAND, J.

This case was argued at a former term of court and the judgment affirmed in an opinion written by Mr. Justice Gideon. Thereafter, upon petition, a rehearing was granted and the case was again argued before the court. We have reached the conclusion that the former decision should stand. We adopt the opinion written by Mr. Justice Gideon, with one or two slight changes, and have added some paragraphs at the end to dispose of matters raised by the motion for rehearing.

Plaintiff claims a right to travel over certain lands occupied by the defendant William R. Roach under contract of purchase from the defendant Ethan Jeremy and wife. This action is to enjoin defendants from obstructing or interfering with such claimed right.

The claimed right of way is described in the complaint by metes and bounds. The property is situated in Summit county, this state. The trial court entered judgment in favor of defendants. From that judgment this appeal is prosecuted.

The findings of the trial court are that in about the year 1892 there was a public road or highway extending from Salt Lake City to Park City, Utah, which passed the ranch of plaintiff and continued on in a southwesterly direction from that point toward Park City; that said highway was a main thoroughfare from Salt Lake City to Park City; that it extended over a portion of the land owned by the defendant Ethan Jeremy and along the course of the right of way described in the complaint. The court also found that such highway was used by plaintiff and his predecessors in interest, and by the general public, as a public highway; that about the year 1905 the course of the highway *76 was changed, and from that time on did not pass over the way described in the complaint; that after the year 1905 the public ceased to use what is designated as the “old highway” and which extends over the land described in the complaint; that after the discontinuance of the use of the portion of such highway mentioned by the general public the plaintiff, in the years 1914, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, and 1919 leased from Ethan Jeremy, he being the admitted owner, the land described as the right of way claimed by plaintiff, and that thereafter plaintiff again leased such land for a valuable consideration during the years 1921, 1922, and 1928; that plaintiff occupied said premises during said periods under said lease; grazed cattle upon the land so leased, and that plaintiff would, from time to time when it suited his convenience, drive cattle over said leased premises and over that portion of the land set apart and originally used as a highway. The court also found that such use and occupancy of the lands and such driving of cattle over the same, since said highway ceased to be a public road, was under and by virtue of the lease and not otherwise. The court also found that plaintiff and his predecessors in interest had not used the right of way for twenty years last past openly, continuously, or adversely, or under claim of right so to do, and that whatever use had been made of said premises or right of way over the same by plaintiff, since said way had ceased to be a public road, was a permissive use from defendant Jeremy.

It is undisputed that the claimed right of way was at one time a part of a public road or highway over which the public traveled leading from Salt Lake City and other points to Park City. It is likewise established that about the year 1905 the road was changed and moved 200 feet east and that thereafter the public ceased to use the old highway. At a later date the road was again changed to a point still farther east. No work was done, neither were improvements made on the way in question by the public officials after 1905.

*77 Prior to 1911 we had a statute (Comp. Laws Utah 1907, § 1116) which provided:

“All highways once established must continue to be highways until abandoned by order of the board of county commissioners of the county in which they are situated, by operation of law; or by judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction; provided, that a road not used or worked for a period of five years ceases to be a highway.”

In 1911 that section of our statutes was amended (Laws 1911, c. 142). It is now section 2802, of the Comp. Laws Utah 1917, and reads:

“All highways once established must continue to be highways until abandoned by order of the board of county commissioners of the county in which they are situated, or by judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction.”

In this case the trial court found that the way in controversy was abandoned as a highway in 1905. The statute then provided that a highway thus abandoned and not used or worked for a period of five years ceased to be a highway. It thus appears that any claim for a right to use this highway on the part of plaintiff, by reason of it at one time having been a public road or highway, terminated at the end of five years after the abandonment of the road in 1905. The amendment quoted above was not adopted until 1911.

The land over which the right of way is claimed is not inclosed by fence. It is used for grazing purposes only, and, so far as the record discloses, it has no value other than for grazing purposes. There is some testimony on the part of plaintiff that he and his brothers, who were associated with him much of the time in controversy, drove their cattle over this right of way. It appears from the record that plaintiff owned lands lying both to the north and to the south of this land over which the right of way is claimed.

The record fails to support plaintiff’s claim for two reasons. (1) The testimony is not conclusive of any open, adverse, continuous, uninterrupted, and exclusive use of the *78 way with the knowledge and acquiescence of the owner of the servient estate, and (2) it appears without dispute that during at least seven of the years necessary to create a prescriptive right the plaintiff occupied the premises as a tenant of the owner.

The first headnote to Tarpey v. Veith, 22 Cal. App. 289, 134 P. 367, is:

“A right of way claimed by a prescription was not established without showing that the use was adverse, and under claim of right communicated to the owner, or was so continuously, openly and notoriously adverse as to create the presumption of knowledge.”

Among other cases cited to the same effect are: Crosier v. Brown, 66 W. Va. 273, 66 S. E. 326, 25 L. R. A. (N. S.) 174; Gardner v. Swann, 114 Ga. 304, 40 S. E. 271; Schulenbarger v. Johnstone, 64 Wash. 202, 116 P. 843, 35 L. R. A. (N. S.) 941; Watson v. Board of County Corn’rs, 38 Wash. 662, 80 P. 201.

Plaintiff makes no claim that the owner of the servient estate was ever notified that plaintiff claimed a right to travel or use the way in controversy. Nothing was ever said at any time to the owner of the servient estate that plaintiff did claim such a right. The evidence on behalf of defendants is to the effect that no right was ever granted to plaintiff to use such way for any purpose whatever.

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Bluebook (online)
287 P. 622, 76 Utah 74, 1930 Utah LEXIS 42, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dahl-v-roach-utah-1930.