Opinion ID: 2076332
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: R.C.P. 56(e); see Gore v. Green Mountain Lakes, Inc., 140 Vt. 262, 266, 438 A.2d 373, 375 (1981).

Text: Defendants' first claim of error is that there existed a genuine issue as to the existence of Wheat Road and Park Hill Road and the location of the roads. They also argue that whether Wheat Road and Park Hill Road are public highways is a mixed question of law and fact and that the court engaged in fact finding when it decided the status of the roads. Therefore, they conclude, summary judgment was inappropriate. We disagree. In both cases, the only issue which the court decided when it granted summary judgment was whether the road in question was a public highway. The court based its decisions on the following facts: (1) Wheat Road and Park Hill Road exist, and have existed since the early 19th century, and (2) Wheat Road was surveyed in 1816 and recorded in 1817, and Park Hill Road was surveyed and recorded in 1788. At the time the court granted the motions for summary judgment it had before it the following materials: 1. affidavits from John Dutton, a surveyor who had conducted extensive boundary and highway research in the Town of Barnard, stating that he had examined the Barnard Land Records and the area of the disputed roads in 1985 and had uncovered (a) a survey of the Wheat Road dated September 17, 1816 and recorded in the Barnard Land Roads and Villages Book at page 39 on January 1, 1817, and (b) a survey of the Park Hill Road dated September 9, 1788 and recorded in the Barnard Land Roads and Villages Book at page 5; 2. affidavits from Frank B. Lamson, a registered land surveyor in the State of Vermont, stating that (a) in 1985, he supervised a survey of the so-called Wheat Road's present centerline and the so-called Park Hill Road's present centerline; and (b) in the process of conducting the 1985 survey, he found (i) clear evidence of Wheat Road's and Park Hill Road's continued existence and (ii) that the centerline of the current roadbeds closely followed, for the most part, the path of the same laid out in 1816; [2] 3. a certified copy of the September 17, 1816 survey of Wheat Road signed by the Barnard Selectmen and a certified copy of the September 9, 1788 survey of Park Hill Road also signed by the Barnard Selectmen. 4. a copy of the 1985 survey of the Wheat Road and the Park Hill Road conducted by Mr. Lamson. These materials were evidence of the facts relied on by the court in making its decision. The only challenge to the determining facts consisted of a general denial by the Gencos of the following clause in the plaintiffs' complaint: Plaintiffs' only access by road to [their] premises is over the Wheat Road or Old Town Road, so called, (hereinafter referred to as the Wheat Road) to the Park Hill Road, so called. The Wheat Road, which lies solely within the Town of Barnard, also adjoins lands of Defendants John and Ruth Genco and connects with another old town highway. The Wheat Road was laid out and approved as a town highway in 1816. A survey of the Wheat Road, dated September 7, 1816 and signed by the Selectmen of the Town of Barnard, was recorded on January 1, 1817 at Page 39 of the Barnard Highway Records. Because the plaintiffs submitted credible affidavits and documentary evidence in support of the determining facts, defendants could not rest upon the mere allegations or denials of the adverse party's pleading, but were required to respond by affidavits or as otherwise provided in [Rule 56] ... set[ting] forth specific facts showing that there [was] a genuine issue for trial. V.R.C.P. 56(e); see Gore, 140 Vt. at 266, 438 A.2d at 375.
In order to prevail on their motion for summary judgment the plaintiffs must show that the motion rests on a valid theory of law. The defendants argue that the court applied an incorrect legal theory in deciding that Wheat Road and Park Hill Road are class 4 public roads. We disagree. In 1816 and 1817 the procedure for the establishment of a public highway was as follows: [E]very highway or road which shall in future be laid out or opened, shall be actually surveyed, and a survey thereof made out, entered and recorded, in the town clerk's office, where such highway or road lies, (and for want thereof, in the proprietors' clerk's office) ascertaining the breadth, course and distance of such road. 1 Laws of Vermont, ch. XLV, § 1, at 446 (1808). In 1820 the following step was added to the procedure: [W]hen the selectmen of any town shall open any road, heretofore, or hereafter, laid out, they shall cause a certificate thereof, signed by them, or a major part of them, to be forthwith recorded in the town clerk's office, in such town; and the day on which such certificate is recorded, shall be taken and deemed to be the time of opening such road. 1820, ch. 6, § 2, at 22 (current version at 19 V.S.A. § 715). The court interpreted the heretofore or hereafter language to apply to laid out. Thus, the 1820 additional step of certification for valid opening applies only to roads which were laid out but not opened before the change was enacted and to roads laid out after the passage of the provision. We agree with the court's interpretation. This interpretation, however, does not end the matter. As the defendants point out, although there is evidence that Wheat Road and Park Hill Road were surveyed and laid out before 1820 there is no evidence establishing when the roads were opened. Thus, it is possible that although Wheat Road and Park Hill Road were laid out before 1820 they were not opened until after 1820. If that were the case, certification would have been required for the proper establishment of the roads as public highways. There is no evidence that either Wheat Road or Park Hill Road was ever certified. At this juncture, the date of the opening of the contested roads is difficult to ascertain. However, evidence that the roads were opened early in the 19th century is found in Frank Lamson's affidavits which stated that in the process of conducting the 1985 survey of Wheat Road and Park Hill Road, he found clear evidence of the continued existence of the roads and that [t]he centerline of the current roadbed[s] closely followed, for the most part, the path of the same as laid out in 1816. In Bacon v. Boston & Maine R.R., 83 Vt. 421, 434, 76 A. 128, 134 (1910), we stated that [w]here the regularity of an official act is dependent upon some coexisting or preexisting act or fact there is a presumption in favor of the doing of such act or the existence of such fact. Here, since openings subsequent to 1820 required certification, the opening of Wheat Road and Park Hill Road was regular only if it was accomplished prior to 1820. Opening prior to 1820 is thus a coexisting or preexisting fact upon which the regularity of the opening is dependent. Therefore, the court was correct in presuming that the roads were opened prior to 1820 absent evidence to the contrary. [3] Since there is an uncontested presumption that Wheat Road and Park Hill Road were opened prior to 1820, and since the roads were surveyed and the surveys were recorded, the court was correct in concluding that public highways were properly established.