Opinion ID: 166407
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Definition of “highway.”

Text: R.S. 2477 grants “the right of way for the construction of highways over public lands, not reserved for public uses.” At common law the term “highway” was a broad term encompassing all sorts of rights of way for public travel. In his magisterial Commentaries on American Law, Chancellor James Kent wrote that “Every thoroughfare which is used by the public, and is, in the language of the English books, ‘common to all the king’s subjects,’ is a highway, whether it be a carriage-way, a horse-way, a foot-way, or a navigable river.” James Kent, 3 Commentaries on American Law 572-73,  (10th ed. 1860). Accord, Isaac Grant Thompson, A Practical Treatise on the Law of Highways 1 (1868) (“A highway is a way over which the public at large have a right of passage, whether it be a carriage way, a horse way, a foot way, or a navigable river”); Joseph K. Angell & Thomas Durfee, A Treatise on the Law of Highways 3-4 (2d ed. 1868) 97 (“Highways are of various kinds, according to the state of civilization and wealth of the country through which they are constructed, and according to the nature and extent of the traffic to be carried on upon them, – from the rude paths of the aboriginal people, carried in direct lines over the natural surface of the country, passable only by passengers or pack-horses, to the comparatively perfect modern thoroughfare.”). The Department of the Interior expressly adopted this interpretation in a decision in 1902: The grant of right of way by Section 2477, R. S., is not restricted to those which permit passage of broad, or of wheeled, vehicles, or yet to highways made, owned, or maintained by the public. Highways are the means of communication and of commerce. The more difficult and rugged is the country, the greater is their necessity and the more reason exists to encourage and aid their construction. The Pasadena and Mt. Wilson Toll Road Co. v. Schneider, 31 Pub. Lands Dec. 405, 407-408 (1902). Under traditional interpretations, therefore, the term “highway” is congruent with and does not restrict the “continuous public use” standard: any route that satisfies the user requirement is, by definition, a “highway.” The BLM and SUWA urge us to adopt a more restrictive definition. In its administrative determinations in this case, the BLM offered the following definition of the statutory term “highways”: A highway is a thoroughfare used by the public for the passage of 98 vehicles carrying people and goods from place to place (BLM Instruction Memorandum No. UT 98-56). The claimed highway right-of-way must be public in nature and must have served as a highway when the underlying public lands were available for R.S. 2477 purposes. It is unlikely that a route used by a single entity or used only a few times would qualify as a highway, since the route must have an open public nature and uses. Similarly, a highway connects the public with identifiable destinations or places. The route should lead vehicles somewhere, but it is not required that the route connect to cities. For example, a highway can allow public access to a scenic area, a trail head, a business, or other place used by and open to the public. Routes that do not lead to an identifiable destination are unlikely to qualify. San Juan Admin. Det. at 5, Aplt. App. Vol. 1 at 249; see also Garfield Admin. Det. at 5, Aplt. App. Vol. 2 at 308; Kane Admin. Det. at 5, Aplt. App. Vol. 2 at 371. The district court found this interpretation by the BLM “to be both reasonable and persuasive” and concluded that “BLM did not err in its interpretation of the term ‘highways’ in R.S. 2477.” 147 F.Supp.2d at 1143-44. For purposes of this case, we need not consider the broader implications of the common law definition, because this case involves exclusively claims for roads appropriate to vehicular use. 37 Moreover, there is no disagreement regarding the BLM’s holding that “[t]he claimed highway right-of-way must be public in nature” and that “[i]t is unlikely that a route used by a single entity or used only a few times would qualify as a highway, since the route must have an 37 The Counties stated at oral argument that they were limiting their claims to routes appropriate for vehicles. 99 open public nature and uses.” That is simply a restatement of the “continuous public use” requirement of Utah law. The parties disagree, however, over whether R.S. 2477 routes are limited to roads that lead to “identifiable destinations or places.” Cases interpreting R.S. 2477, and analogous cases involving claims to public easements across private land under state law, occasionally refer to a lack of identifiable destinations as one factor bearing on the ultimate question of continuous public use. For example, in finding a valid R.S. 2477 right of way in Lindsay Land & Live Stock Co., the Utah Supreme Court noted that the “road connected two points between which there was occasion for considerable public travel,” 285 P. at 648, while in Moulton v. Irish, 218 P. at 1055, the Montana Supreme Court noted as one reason to reject an R.S. 2477 claim the fact that the road “did not lead to any town, settlement, post office, or home.” See also Dillingham Commercial Co., 705 P.2d at 414 (“a right of way created by public user pursuant to 43 U.S.C. § 932 connotes definite termini”). It is far from clear that this factor has much practical significance. None of the contested rights of way were rejected by the BLM solely on the basis of a lack of identifiable destinations. It is hard to imagine a road satisfying the “continuous public use” requirement that did not “lead anywhere.” Moreover, given the BLM’s concession that “a highway can allow public access to a scenic 100 area, a trail head, a business, or other place used by and open to the public,” it is hard to imagine much of a road that would not satisfy the standard. We therefore hold that, on remand, the district court should consider evidence regarding identifiable destinations as part of its overall determination of whether a contested route satisfies the requirements under state law for recognition as a valid R.S. 2477 claim.