Virginian-pilot. (Norfolk, Va.) 1898-1911, 1899-06-13
COURT DECISIONS.
Notes Of Cases Recently Decided,
Which are Of Interest to
Our People.
DIGESTED BY ". B. MARTIN,
(Excluslvely for virginian-PIlot.)
STATE ". LUCAS.
Supreme Court of North Carolina.
March Fl, 1899.

HAuhSh 4ooos
A WAY USED FOR MORE THAN 40
YEARS BY THE PUBLIC. BUT
NEVER DEDICATED OR ESTAB-
LISHED BY LEGAL PROCEED
1NGS. AND NOT MAINTAINED AT
PUBLIC EXPENSE, IS NOT A
PUBLIC HIGHWAY FOR THE OBJ
6TRUCTION OF WHICH AN IN
DICTMENT WILL LIE.
This was criminal action. and de-
PENDANT was convicted of obstructing
a road and appealed. The road, the
obstruction OF which was admitted by
the defendant, had been continuously
used as an ordinary neighborhood road
Tor many years by the general public,
out the road was never a public charge.
NO nanos were ever assigned to work
It.. nor had 1t ever been laid off or kept
UP py any court, county or township
authority: nor was it-ever-laid off. de-
oicated. set apart. or acquired in any
way by any one as q public or church
roao except by Its use as above stated,
ana 1t was not kept open by any one in
particular, but was kept open by such
RESIDENTS OF the neighborhood as had
occasion to use It, and saw proper TO
40 SO. me court charged the jury that
II they believed the evidence the de-
PENDANT was guilty, to which the defen-
dant excepted. Verdict of guilty. Ne
PENDANT moved in arrest of judgement
Tor that the indictment does not charge
q criminal offense.
The court says:
The motion in arrest of Judgment was
properly overruled. The indictment fol-
lows the language OF the statute.whch
makes 1t misdemeanor to 'wllfullv
alter, change, or obstruct any highway
cart-Way. mill-road or road leading
from or to any church or other Mace
OF pubic worship, whether the right of
way thereto be secured in the manner
nerein provided for or by purchase.
donation or otherwise
AS to the exception to the charge tho
law Is clearly and succinctly stated
thus: Where the public has used n
way as O public road or cartway. lust
as II 1t had been laid off by order of
court.-as If 1t had had an overseer and
nands' and been worked and kept in
oroer'-tor more than 20 years. II will
be presumed that 1t was so laid of. or
that the owner OF the land had ded-
Gated 1t to the public; but the mere
user of footpaths and neIghborhood
roads without such accompanying cir
cumstances will riHse no such presump-
tion. however long the time. In state
v. Mcdaniel. 90 N. c.. 2S4 tho inry
round n special verdict that the roa
mad been used by the neighborhood for
60 years, in going to church, to mill.
and to public highways, on foot, on
horseback and In vehicles. and yet IT
was not held to be a public road which
1t was indictable to obstruct."
1t Is true that in McDanlers case.
supra. 1t was held. as the law then
stood. that n road to and from a
church. closed up at one end "a .cul
de-sac." as the court termed it,, could
not be a public road. because not n
thoroughfarc, and. therefore, that it's
obstruction was not indictable. where
as chapter 1889, Acts 1S72-'73 (now Code,
section 2O65). has since made Tt indIcTa
PIE; out none the less it is still essen
tial. not only in the absence Of n Inv
ing out by public authority under Code
section 2O62. or actual dedication. that
there must be 20 years user, as there
was IN this case. but the road must
nave been worked and kept In order bv
PUBLIC authority. For error in instruc.
ton to the jury, there must be a new