Title: Davis v. Linden
Citation: 340 So. 2d 775
Docket Number: N/A
State: Alabama
Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court
Date: December 17, 1976

340 So. 2d 775 (1976)
Dale H. DAVIS
v.
Robert T. LINDEN et al.
SC 1817.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
December 17, 1976.
*776 Francis A. Poggi, Jr., Fairhope, for appellant.
Lloyd E. Taylor, Fairhope, for appellees.
ALMON, Justice.
The Circuit Court of Baldwin County sitting without a jury held that the appellant-defendant was unlawfully obstructing a public road. The court gave the appellant thirty days to remove the obstructions.
Appellant contends that the evidence was insufficient to support the judgment of the court. We disagree and affirm.
The road in question is a rural road bordered by farmland. The road follows a section line south from County Road 54 for approximately one-half mile.
The appellant's land lies along the entire east side of the road and along the northern half of the west side. The land of Robert Linden (an appellee) borders the southern half of the west side. As the road terminates, it abuts the land of Lloyd E. Taylor and Alan Dale Taylor (appellees), which lies south of that part of the appellant's land situated on the east side of the road.
The sole question is whether the road became public because of general use by the public for twenty years or more. "The case presents purely a question of factwhether the road is in fact a public road or only a private . . . road. . . ." Williams v. Prather, 239 Ala. 524, 526, 196 So. 118, 119 (1940). We would not reverse the trial judge's findings based on testimony taken ore tenus without a showing that they are plainly wrong or manifestly unjust. Hinds v. Slack, 293 Ala. 25, 299 So. 2d 717 (1974).
Lester D. Linden, age seventy-one, testified that in 1905 his father purchased what is now the Davis property; the record is not entirely clear whether this included the Davis property west of the road or just the Davis property east of the road. Lester later acquired the property from his father, lived on it, and farmed it until approximately 1947 when he sold it. According to Lester the road was used for approximately five years as a regular mail route together with an "old trail road" along the south side and east side of the Davis property. (Robert T. Linden, Lester's brother, later testified that the road was used by the mail man beginning in 1914.) The trail road on the south side and the east side is not in question and apparently was abandoned long ago.
On cross-examination Lester Linden testified as follows:
Later, on cross-examination, Lester Linden also testified as follows:
Mr. Milton J. Gustafson, age seventyfour, testified that he was a friend of the Linden family when they lived on the property. He arrived in the area in 1904 with his parents, lived there until 1936, and returned to the area in 1953.
The road has been fenced on both sides during part of its history. The testimony indicated there were gates across the road on occasion to control livestock, but that the gates were either open or unlocked with the exception of a few months within the past few years when the Taylors and Davis placed a gate across the road by mutual agreement. Other testimony indicated that the road as it now exists has been open to anyone who wanted to use it, though as a practical matter the road was used primarily, if not solely, by the landowners bordering the road, and rarely by anyone else.
At the close of all the evidence, the trial judge made the following statement:
We conclude there was sufficient evidence presented to support the trial judge's findings that the road is a public road. Furthermore, the evidence supports the finding that the road has not reverted to a private road. "Nonuser short of the time of prescription does not operate as a discontinuance of a public road . . . ." Harbison v. Campbell, 178 Ala. 243, 252, 59 So. 207, 210 (1912). The fact that at one time the road had an extension which no longer exists does not change the nature of that part which has continued to be used. Purvis v. Busey, 260 Ala. 373, 71 So. 2d 18 (1954). Testimony existed indicating that at one time or another the county may have graded the road; however, county maintenance is not essential to the status of public road, though it would be strong evidence thereof. Carter v. Walker, 186 Ala. 140, 65 So. 170 (1914).
The judgment is affirmed.
AFFIRMED.
HEFLIN, C. J., and BLOODWORTH, JONES and EMBRY, JJ., concur.