Opinion ID: 2519842
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the board's finding of a public prescriptive right is supported by substantial competent evidence

Text: The County argues that there was substantial evidence to support the Board's findings that the ACR was a public road. The County maintains the findings should not have been disturbed by the district court, and that the district court erred in reversing the Board's 1999 decision. Idaho Code § 40-202 sets forth the statutory requirements for determining whether a public highway exists. Under the statute, a public road may be acquired by prescription: (1) if the public uses the road for a period of five years, and (2) the road is worked and kept up at the expense of the public. I.C. § 40-202(3). The burden rests on the County to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that public rights were established in the disputed segment of the road after its abandonment in December of 1939. See e.g., Roberts v. Swim, 117 Idaho 9, 784 P.2d 339 (Ct.App.1989). Regular maintenance and extensive public use are sufficient to establish the existence of the public status of the roadway. Id. at 16, 784 P.2d at 346. The evidence is clear that the road, from the time it was merely a wagon trail in the early 1900's, came to be known as the loop, which provided access to public land and waters in the Caribou National Forest and the Tex Creek Wildlife Management Area, and to land owned by the State of Idaho. The evidence shows that from 1949, when the road was widened and improved, the road was regularly and continuously used by the public for fishing, hunting, camping, and other recreational activities. In 1995, the parties stipulated to the fact that the road was regularly and continuously used by the public for at least five years. In addition to proof of use, the Board had to decide whether there was evidence of maintenance by a public agency. Such maintenance need only consist of work and repairs that are reasonably necessary; it need not be performed in each of five consecutive years nor through the entire length of the road. Id., citing State v. Nesbitt, 79 Idaho 1, 310 P.2d 787 (1957). Accordingly, we have carefully examined the record to determine whether the evidence supports the Board's finding that the County maintained and improved the road for a period of approximately twenty-five years from 1949 to 1974. Testimony regarding maintenance on the road consisted of descriptions of significant improvements done by the County, at county expense, including widening, realigning, adding a new roadbed and drainage in late 1949, and reconstructing portions of the road between 1952 and 1960. During that same eight-year period, the evidence showed that the County had graded the road annually or semiannually as required. The County continued to maintain the road, which maintenance was supplemented by work done by the Weeks Brothers, using their own equipment for their purposes, until 1974, when the level of maintenance by the County became the subject of a dispute between the County and the Weeks Brothers. The Landowners contend that without the Weeks' effort, the County maintenance could not be said to have been performed at necessary times and places. See Pugmire v. Johnson, 102 Idaho 882, 643 P.2d 832 (1982) (requiring a showing that the public agency's maintenance of the road was performed at necessary times and places). They argue that the County failed to establish that maintenance of the disputed segment of the road was comparable to that done on the other two segments of the road. They also argue that the maintenance was as necessary, in the face of testimony from users of the road that: (a) they never attempted to travel it in early spring when it was wet, or during the winter, and (b) the basic, day-to-day work which made the road traversable by the general public was done by the Weeks family. These additional tests, however, are in excess of the statutory requirements. The criteria to determine a public road has been stated as follows: When a right-of-way has been used by the general public for a period of five years and has been maintained at public expense, the right-of-way becomes a public highway. State ex rel. Haman v. Fox, 100 Idaho 140, 146, 594 P.2d 1093, 1099 (1979). See also Meservey v. Gulliford, 14 Idaho 133, 93 P. 780 (1908) (public use of a highway for the statutory period and keeping it in repair at public expense is all that is necessary to establish a highway by prescription). There is no requirement that the County exclusively maintain the road and no mandated level of maintenance other than as necessary. Accordingly, we conclude that there is substantial, competent evidence in the record to support the Board's findings. We therefore affirm those findings of fact.