Mailey v. Board of County Commissioners

385 P.2d 74, 142 Mont. 505, 1963 Mont. LEXIS 111
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 23, 1963
DocketNo. 10428
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 385 P.2d 74 (Mailey v. Board of County Commissioners) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mailey v. Board of County Commissioners, 385 P.2d 74, 142 Mont. 505, 1963 Mont. LEXIS 111 (Mo. 1963).

Opinions

MR. JUSTICE JOHN C. HARRISON

delivered the Opinion of the Court.

This is an appeal from the district court of the fifth judicial district of the State of Montana and the County of Madison involving two cases combined for a hearing at the time of trial. One case No. 5400.1, is an action in condemnation to condemn certain land belonging to respondents, said land comprising 1.77 acres being a right-of-way 60 feet in width connecting up [507]*507the private Garden. Creek road on the east slope with the Mc-Hessor Creek road on the west slope. The other No. 5404 involves an action by the respondents to close part of an alleged county road running through their property, which portion of said road is the same road hereinafter referred to as having been created by action of the Board of County Commissioners in June 1916. Generally this road ran along the course of Mc-Hessor Creek to the crest of the Ruby Mountains. The eases were heard without jury by District Judge Victor H. Fall who found for the respondent Mailey Brothers in both cases.

Inasmuch as there is a co-mingling of the above referred two cases numbers 5400.1 and 5404, the Mailey Brothers hereafter will be referred to as the respondents and the Board of County Commissioners as the appellants.

The facts controlling the decision revolve around a small mountain creek and canyon located in Madison County. Historically this was a county before Montana became a territory, it having been a county in the Idaho Territory. It was in this locality that Montana’s great mineral wealth was first brought to light. Here, too, is located the first two Capitols of the Territory, Bannack and Virginia City, and counsel for the appellants make much of the travails of Montana’s early citizens to try to establish a roadway up the creek to the crest of the rugged Ruby Mountains, that divide a portion of the county on its western side. In fact, in appellants’ argument, much stress is made that the Indians, probably the Bannaeks, used the canyon to go east over the Rubys. However, it is undeniable that McHessor Creek and its canyon would never have become parts of Montana’s legal lore had not the Garden Creek Stock Association needed an access road from their spring grazing areas located on the west side of the Ruby Mountains to their summer grazing areas on the east side of the mountains, and had not this creek bed and the canyon been the most direct route.

The respondents, Mailey Brothers, men over 60 years of age, [508]*508were born in the area, their parents having settled here long before barbed wire separated private and government land. They were years ahead of the homesteaders who came, into this country in the early 1900’s, and made open grazing impossible. The brothers, as young men, herded cattle throughout the area now in dispute. In the mid-twenty’s, Gus and Fred Mailey took out homesteads along the creek and part of the land homesteaded by Fred lies at the crest of the mountains. It is through this part of the land that the County is trying to condemn a right of way and put a road through to the Mc-Hessor Creek Road.

Concerning a certain road up McHessor Creek it is admitted that the road was in existence before the brothers homesteaded. On this point the following questions and answers took place with Mr. William Mailey:

“Q. And is that true as to all the lands through which this McHessor Creek road goes that now belong to your association? A. Oh, no, there is other lands.
“Q. I mean as to this, what’s been variously described as four or five miles through which McHessor Creek goes on you, you know what I am talking about, as to that portion thereof, the McHessor Creek road, was that established before or after those lands are patented to your brothers? A. Well, its been brought out here very plainly that the road was there before these boys ever homesteaded it. That I admit.” Emphasis supplied.

This testimony taken along with the de facto recognition by the Mailey Brothers of the road plus their petition to the Board of County Commissioners to abandon said road as provided by section 32-105, R.C.M. 1947, is sufficient in itself to recognize the existence of the county road to the crest of the mountain on the west slope.

It was brought out by counsel for the appellants that in 1916, in accord with the then prevailing statute, the landowners had petitioned the Board of County Commissioners of [509]*509Madison. County and after a hearing on June 5,1916, the County Commissioners had created a county road, said description being in book T of the Commissioners’ Journal on page 337, as follows:

“All that portion of said county road southerly from the north line of the south one-half (V2) of Section 13, Township 6 South, Range 6 West, M.P.M.; from said one-half (%), section line, through Sections 13 and 24, Township 6 South, Range 6 West and thence southerly through Sections 19, 30, and 31, Township 6 South, Range 5 West, M.P.M.; to the crest of the Ruby Mountains and above said described roadway being and existing generally along the course of McHessor Creek through said above-described lands to the crest of the Ruby Mountains.”

A close inspection of the two transcripts and many exhibits involved in this matter, reveals considerable evidence that after the Board of County Commissioners in 1916. created this road on the book nothing was done until the late 1950’s. In 1958, there appears to have been a flooding due to a beaver dam and the county paid several hundred dollars for a culvert to be installed in the road to make it passable, but this appears to be the only expense during the 40 plus years that the road was officially in existence as to the records of Madison County. During this same period of time there is undeniable evidence that the road was practically impassable except for horse and wagon, people on horseback, and in these later years jeeps and four-wheel powered wagons of different types. There isn’t a scintilla of evidence in the record that you could take an average automobile over the road successfully.

At the time the Maileys homesteaded along the creek at the top of the mountain it was necessary for them to build a road and there is ample evidence that the last part of the road up to the crest, perhaps through some two to four miles was actually built in its entirety by the Mailey brothers for the purpose of servicing their land at the top of the hill and their [510]*510holdings along the crest of the Ruby Mountains. The evidence also shows that the road was little used by anyone other than a few stockmen who used the lower road and the Mailey’s road to take in salt and supplies to herders and to go from east to west when speed necessitated same. In spite of all the efforts on the part of counsel for the appellants, there is little evidence other than that this was a road used by the stockmen. Counsel tried to establish that the road led to desirable picnic areas, fishing, and recreational areas, but the evidence does not support any such contention. There is some evidence to the effect that hunters use the area in the Fall, and also that at no point up to the time of the late 50’s was anyone ever denied the right to cross on this road by the Mailey Brothers.

From 1930 to approximately 1958, the respondents were in peaceful possession of this area and no one gave much thought to just what type of road lay up the McHessor Creek over the Ruby Mountains and down the eastern side.

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Bluebook (online)
385 P.2d 74, 142 Mont. 505, 1963 Mont. LEXIS 111, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mailey-v-board-of-county-commissioners-mont-1963.