Opinion ID: 1512016
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Heading Rank: 1

Heading: CV-75-81: Creation of Public Way by Prescription or by Dedication and Acceptance

Text: Comber filed a complaint in Superior Court on July 25, 1975, seeking a declaratory judgment that Rancourt Road was a public way. After a full evidentiary hearing, the presiding justice granted judgment for the Town. Comber appeals that ruling, alleging that the evidence firmly supported a declaration that Rancourt Road had become a public way either by prescription or by dedication and acceptance. We deny the appeal. It is well established that a town way can be created by adverse user alone. MacKenna v. Inhabitants of Searsmont, Me., 349 A.2d 760, 762 (1976). The requirements for creation of a public way by prescription parallel those for the creation of a prescriptive easement. Id. at 762 n. 3. As we stated in Dartnell v. Bidwell, 115 Me. 227, 230, 98 A. 743, 744 (1916): A prescriptive easement is created only by a continuous use for at least twenty years under a claim of right adverse to the owner, with his knowledge and acquiescence, or by a use so open, notorious, visible and uninterrupted that knowledge and acquiescence will be presumed. See also Inhabitants of Kennebunkport v. Forrester, Me., 391 A.2d 831 (1978); Pace v. Carter, Me., 390 A.2d 505 (1978). Applying this standard to the instant case, we find sufficient evidence to support the presiding justice's finding that the Town's use of Rancourt Road was more permissive than adverse. Comber introduced evidence which showed that the Town had paid to add gravel to the road and to install lighting. However, improvements financed by the Town were at best minor and sporadic. Comber did show that the Town had removed snow from Rancourt Road on a regular basis, but the impact of that testimony was undermined by proof that the Town had also used public funds to finance snow removal from private driveways until 1973. In short, while Comber did establish that the Town had shown some interest in Rancourt Road over a twenty-year period, there was enough evidence to support the presiding justice's conclusion that the requirements for the creation of a public way by prescription had not been met. Similarly, the presiding justice's finding that a public way had not been created by dedication and acceptance survives scrutiny by this appellate court. In order to prevail, Comber had to establish that (1) Rancourt Road had been dedicated to the Town and (2) the Town had accepted Rancourt Road as a public way. Vachon v. Inhabitants of Lisbon, Me., 295 A.2d 255 (1972). We have previously defined dedication as the intentional appropriation of land by the owner to some proper public use, reserving to himself no rights therein inconsistent with the full exercise and enjoyment of such use. Northport Camp Meeting Association v. Andrews, 104 Me. 342, 346, 71 A. 1027, 1029 (1908) (Emphasis added). Even if, as Comber argues, a vote of the Town in 1973 satisfied the second requirement, it is clear from the record that Comber never dedicated Rancourt Road to the Town since he admitted under cross-examination that he did not own the land over which Rancourt Road runs. In short, there is ample evidence to support the presiding justice's finding that the road in question had not become a public way either by prescription or by dedication and acceptance. The presiding justice properly entered judgment for the Town in Comber's action for a declaratory judgment.