Opinion ID: 2600153
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Statutory Public Policy

Text: In reviewing the case before us, we also look to the statutory public policy. The legislative intent of section 43-2-201(1)(c) is that the establishment of a public road by prescription is a narrow alternative to the other available means a public entity has for establishing a road, which include: (1) express or implied dedication of the road to the public by the property owner; (2) purchase of a right-of-way by the public entity; or (3) condemnation and payment of just compensation for the property interest necessary for the road. The General Assembly has encouraged landowners to allow public use of their land; in turn, it has guarded against landowners losing their property rights when allowing such use. See § 33-41-103, 9 C.R.S. (2003) (limiting landowner liability for public use of private land). The vacant land exception also demonstrates this legislative policy, as we discussed in Simon. Travel over vacant land is deemed permissive and cannot serve as the predicate for a prescriptive right: Where the land is vacant and unoccupied and remains free to public use and travel until circumstances induce the owner to enclose it, the mere travel across it, without objection from the owners, does not enable the public to acquire a public road or highway over the same. Such use by the public of vacant and unoccupied land by travel over it, even after the period of twenty years, is regarded merely as a permissive use. Simon v. Pettit, 687 P.2d 1299, 1301 (Colo.1984). See also § 18-4-201(3), 6 C.R.S. (2003); People v. Schafer, 946 P.2d 938, 942 (Colo.1997). The trial court and court of appeals rulings in the case now before us, if upheld, would have the effectcontrary to Colorado public policyof discouraging private landowners from allowing: (1) the public to cross their land for recreational purposes to reach other private or public lands; and (2) without this use causing adverse consequences to the property interests and title of the landowner. Consistent with this statutory policy, the public entity claim of right requirement under section 43-2-201(1)(c), recognized in Simon and Flickinger, establishes a restrictive statutory policy towards public prescriptive road claims. The public entity claimant must establish the public's adverse use for the twenty year prescriptive period and take some overt action or actions that give the property owner notice of the public's claim of right in order for the prescriptive period to commence running under section 43-2-201(1)(c). The strongest indicator of a county's claim of right is the inclusion of the road on the county road system and the expenditure of public funds for maintaining the road. [7] Accordingly, on the claim of right issue, the claimant must provide evidence that a reasonably diligent landowner would have had notice of the public's claim of right to the road. The evidence must include some overt act on the part of the public entity responsible for roads in the jurisdiction that it considers the road a public road. This notification commences the prescriptive period; without it, the prescriptive period never begins. An overt act sufficient to provide notice of the public claim of right could include any number of actions. In a state such as Colorado, where snowfall is a frequent occurrence, plowing roads might constitute an overt act. Including a road on a public road system map, using the road for mail delivery or school buses, expending public funds for the maintenance or improvement of the road, posting signage indicating a public road, or installing drainage systems for the road could each be an act putting the landowner on notice of the public's claim of right to the road. As with the other requirements for establishing a public road by prescription, the public entity has the burden of proof by a preponderance of the evidence to demonstrate that it considered the way across the private property a public road. In the case before us, the only evidence of any public claim of right to access across the McIntyre property is that the Colorado Department of Mined Land Reclamation entered the property to construct a boardwalk over a washed out section of the trail for safety purposes. But this work occurred with the property owner's permission under an agreement between the State of Colorado and the property owner. The uncontested facts of record on summary judgment do not demonstrate Gunnison County's claim of right for a public road on the McIntyre property that commenced the running of the twenty year prescriptive period; thus, the trial court erred in ruling that the prescriptive period had run against these property owners. The trial court's summary judgment order and quiet title decree in favor of Gunnison County must be vacated in regard to the McIntyre property. Because no other property owner appears to contest the trial court's quiet title decree in favor of the County, we presume that these claims were settled in favor of the County, or that the other private property owners impliedly dedicated the old tramway right-of-way across their property to the County.