Opinion ID: 1658412
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: width of highway easement

Text: Eyde claims that for its two residential rental properties abutting Mt. Hope Highway, the mowing of grass within the highway right of way is a sufficient showing of possession and control to rebut the statutory presumption that the easement is four rods wide. We disagree. When highway easements are established by user, they are as wide as the extent of the user, and as § 20 of the general highway law states, are presumed to be four rods or sixty-six feet wide: All highways that are or that may become such by time and use, shall be 4 rods in width, and where they are situated on section or quarter section lines, such lines shall be the center of such roads, and the land belonging to such roads shall be 2 rods in width on each side of such lines. [MCL 221.20; MSA 9.21.] This Court's opinion in the case of Bumpus v Miller, 4 Mich 159, 164 (1856), is an early application of the predecessor of § 20: The statute provides that public highways shall be four rods wide: .... Whether the highway is acquired by user only, or under the provisions of the constitution, it must be four rods in width. The dedication, or donation, when not expressly or impliedly restricted by the owner, is not confined to the mere track which is beaten by carriages and the feet of animals in passing along, but includes and carries with it the four rods in width, as provided by statute.... Thus, in the instant case, the width of the easement is not confined to the paved surface, stipulated to be twenty-one feet wide, but includes the entire four rods or sixty-six feet. When the public has continuously used a highway without the fee owner's objection, the law presumes a dedication of an easement in the public. To rebut the statutory presumption of four rods width, a fee owner must prove that the width of the easement was expressly or impliedly restricted. Bumpus, supra at 164. Cases in which the statutory presumption has been rebutted effectively include those in which the abutting property owner has continuously maintained some structure or activity tending to give notice of possession or control of the disputed property. See Eager v State Hwy Comm'r, 376 Mich 148; 136 NW2d 16 (1965) (private parking place); Coleman v Flint & Pere Marquette R Co, 64 Mich 160; 31 NW 47 (1887) (fence and cultivated land); Scheimer v Price, 65 Mich 638; 32 NW 873 (1887) (fence); Rigoni v Michigan Power Co, 131 Mich App 336; 345 NW2d 918 (1984) (fence); Laug v Ottawa Co Road Comm'r, 37 Mich App 757; 195 NW2d 336 (1972) (rock garden, irrigation system, garage). In the instant case, Eyde has done nothing more than the road commission would do  mow the grass along the shoulder of the highway. For an abutting landowner to rebut the statutory presumption of four rods width in a highway established by user, there must be evidence of control or possession of the disputed property beyond that of ordinary maintenance. Thus we conclude that Eyde's lawn mowing activities on its two residential rental properties are insufficient evidence to rebut the statutory presumption that the Mt. Hope Highway easement is four rods wide.