Case Name: Chatham's Petition
Court: New Hampshire Superior Court
Jurisdiction: New Hampshire
Decision Date: 1846-07
Citations: 18 N.H. 227
Docket Number: 
Parties: Chatham’s Petition.
Judges: 
Reporter: New Hampshire Reports
Volume: 18
Pages: 227–229

Head Matter:
Chatham’s Petition.
The court of common pleas have authority “ to settle and establish the disputed line” between two towns, if the selectmen do not agree in perambulating, and their jurisdiction is not limited to cases in which lines have been previously run and marked.
Petition of the selectmen of Chatham, setting forth that they, with the selectmen of Jackson and the selectmen of Bartlett, had perambulated the line between Chat-ham on the one side, and Jackson and Bartlett on the other, and disagreed with the selectmen of those towns in establishing the boundaries, &c., and praying the court to settle the line.
The towns of Jackson and Bartlett came in upon notice, and a committee was appointed by tbe court of common pleas to examine the subject of tbe petition, and to report at the next succeeding term.
The committee reported “ that the town of Chatham is a town situated on the State line, between New-Hampshire and Maine, and .extending northwardly of Conway more than ten miles, and westerly, from said State line, on the north line of Conway, four miles; that a certain hemlock tree, once standing on said Conway’s north line, but recently fallen, called the four mile tree, and always claimed by Chatham as their southwestern corner, and having marks upon it, and witnesses around it, is considered and established by us as the true southwestern corner of said town of Chatham; that a line, running northerly from said fallen hemlock, parallel with said State line, should be run and established, extending ten miles, to the northern line of Chatham, as the true dividing line between the said towns of Bartlett and Jackson on the one side, and Chatham on the other: That, after diligent search, we are fully satisfied that no such line, either ancient or modem, has been run and marked, so as to be established as and for the dividing line between said towns; and that, by the laws of New-Hampshire, we have no authority to run and establish a new line, but have every reason to believe that a line, running as indicated, will, by mutual consent, be agreed upon, run and established by the parties, which, for want of power, we have not done,” &c.
Eastman, for the town of Chatham.
Cutler, for the towns of Bartlett and Jackson.

Opinion:
'Woods, J.
The report of the committee shows that they stopped short of accomplishing the object for which they were appointed.
The statute provides that the court shall " settle and establish the disputed line, and renew the bounds and marks for the same." But the object of the statute would entirely fail if the duty of the court were limited to establishing lines that could be shown to have been once fixed by actual monuments, and if they had no authority except in cases in which bounds and marks are to be renewed.
There is somewhere a line between Chatham on one side and Jackson and Bartlett on the other. The statute is intended to give the court power to determine, in case of a dispute, where that line is; and by line is intended not only one that is marked or denoted by visible monuments, but the invisible, determinate common limit of the two adjoining territories. It is made the duty of the court to settle where this common limit is, and at the same time to set up monuments that shall render its position certain to a common intent. In this respect they have exactly the authority that the selectmen of the two towns, by their joint action and agreement, have bylaw. 1 Laws of N. H. 238; 2 Laws of N. H. 370; Gorrill v. Whittier, 3 N. H. Rep. 265.
The committee have proceeded so far as to determine where the line between the towns is. They have determined that it runs from the fallen hemlock, ten miles, parallel with the State line, northwardly. They had only to fix by monuments the position of this line, and a decree of the court, upon the return of their report, would have answered the object of the petition and of the statute. To enable them to proceed and accomplish the object of their commission, the report may be recommitted, with instructions to " settle and establish the disputed line," and to set up suitable monuments to denote and to preserve the evidence of the location of it.
Report recommitted, with instructions.