Opinion ID: 2600153
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Private Prescription and Public Road Prescription Differentiated

Text: The case before us commenced as an action against the McIntyres, then became a quiet title action between Gunnison County and all claimants pursuant to C.R.C.P. 105. This rule provides for complete adjudication of the rights of all parties who, when served, have the opportunity to adjudicate their claim of right to an interest in the real property. Board of County Comm'rs v. Timroth, 87 P.3d 102, 105 (Colo. 2004). In the case before us, the trial court and the court of appeals ruled that twenty years of public use adverse to the property owner was itself sufficient to establish a public road by prescription under section 43-2-201(1)(c). These rulings make the requirements for private prescriptive rights and public prescriptive road rights the equivalent of each other. They are not. In regard to private prescriptive rights, section 38-41-101(1), 10 C.R.S. (2003), provides that eighteen years of adverse possession of any land shall be conclusive evidence of absolute ownership in a case for recovery of title or possession by the prior owner of the real property. Section 38-41-103 provides, in addition, that a continuous claim of ownership under the color of a record conveyance or other instrument is prima facie evidence of adverse possession during the prescriptive period. Section 38-41-106 reduces the eighteen year period to seven years when the residence, occupancy, or possession of the adverse possessor is under color of title, in law or equity deducible of record, from the State of Colorado or the United States. Section 38-41-108 recognizes the title of persons in actual possession of the lands under claim and color of title who have possessed the lands and paid taxes on the property for seven years. To the same effect is section 38-41-109, applicable to vacant and unoccupied land. Missing from the private prescription statutes is the requirement of section 43-2-201(1) that the claimant of a public road prescriptive right must demonstrate a claim of right and use adverse to the landowner for the twenty year prescriptive period. As set forth in our case law, the requirements of section 43-2-201(1)(c) are: (1) members of the public must have used the road under a claim of right and in a manner adverse to the landowner's property interest; (2) the public must have used the road without interruption for the statutory period of twenty years; and (3) the landowner must have had actual knowledge of the public's use of the road and made no objection to such use. Board of County Comm'rs v. Flickinger, 687 P.2d 975, 980 (Colo.1984). In contrast, a private prescriptive easement is established when the use is: (1) open or notorious; (2) continued without effective interruption for [eighteen years]; and (3) the use was either (a) adverse or (b) pursuant to an attempted, but ineffective grant. Lobato v. Taylor, 71 P.3d 938, 950 (Colo.2002). The Restatement (Third) of Property: Servitudes § 2.18 cmt. f (2002) recognizes that although, in general, the requirements for a public prescriptive easement are the same as those for a private easement, some states do require a governmental body to assert some claim of ownership through acts of maintenance or otherwise. As shown by our case law construing section 43-2-201(1)(c), Colorado is one of these states. In conducting our analysis, we turn first to what constitutes a public road; then we examine the claim of right requirement that must accompany the public's adverse use in order for a public road to exist by prescription.