Case Name: Tuftonborough v. Fox & a.
Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: New Hampshire
Decision Date: 1878-08
Citations: 58 N.H. 416
Docket Number: 
Parties: Tuftonborough v. Fox & a.
Judges: Stanley, J., did not sit.
Reporter: New Hampshire Reports
Volume: 58
Pages: 416–416

Head Matter:
Tuftonborough v. Fox & a.
A diminution of the ability of a town to build and maintain a highway may be a sufficient change of circumstances to authorize the discontinuance of the highway.
Petition, for the discontinuance of a highway that had not been constructed. The court reserved the question whether an increase of the town’s indebtedness and a decrease of its ability to build and maintain the highway could be a canse of discontinuance.
Copeland, for the plaintiffs.
F. Hobbs and Fox, for the defendants.

Opinion:
Doe, C. J.
As the ability of the town to build and maintain the highway was a material part of the question of laying out (Dudley v. Cilley, 5 N. H. 558, 560, 561; Winship v. Enfield, 42 N. H. 197, 204, 205), a diminution of that ability is a change of circumstances that may be a sufficient reason for discontinuance. It is possible that after a road is laid out, and before it is built, the resources of the town may be so reduced that the expense of the road would be unreasonably burdensome.
Case discharged.
Stanley, J., did not sit.