Opinion ID: 1440779
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Dedication and Acceptance in General

Text: A public highway may be created: (1) through the taking of land by eminent domain and the laying out of a highway by some governmental authority; (2) through the construction of a road on public land; (3) through twenty years of use by the public before 1968; or (4) by dedication and acceptance. Polizzo v. Town of Hampton, 126 N.H. 398, 401, 494 A.2d 254 (1985); see RSA 229:1 (1993). At issue in this appeal is whether the paper street became a public highway by dedication and acceptance. Dedication is the devotion of land to a public use by an unequivocal act of the owner of the fee manifesting an intention that it shall be accepted and used presently or in the future for such public use. Siegel, The Public Role in Establishing Private Residential Communities: Towards a New Formulation of Local Government Land Use Policies That Eliminates The Legal Requirements to Privatize New Communities in the United States, 38 Urb. Law. 859, 916 (Fall 2006) (quotation omitted); 11A E. McQuillin, The Law of Municipal Corporations § 33.02, at 308 (3d ed. 2000). Once a dedication is effective, the public (represented by the municipality) gains land for a public purpose without cost. K. Young, Anderson's American Law of Zoning 4th ed. § 25.25, at 378 (1997). To be effective, there must be both an offer of dedication and acceptance: that is, the landowner `offers' up its property to the municipality and the municipality `accepts' [it]. Siegel, supra at 919; see Morin v. City of Somersworth, 131 N.H. 253, 255, 551 A.2d 527 (1988). The acceptance requirement generally protects the public from having an undesirable dedication thrust upon it, as where the concomitant burdens of maintaining a street, park, or other public service outweigh the public benefits. 77 Am.Jur. Proof of Facts 3d § 13, at 37 (2004). Acceptance of a street, thus, has broad legal implications. It turns the street into a public highway, and thereby renders the accepting city or town liable for its construction and maintenance, or for accidents happening upon it. Polizzo, 126 N.H. at 401-02, 494 A.2d 254 (quotation and ellipsis omitted). As we explained in State v. Atherton, 16 N.H. 203, 210-11 (1844), if acceptance were not required, it would be a great hardship upon towns if an individual could lay out a way upon his own land, throw it open to the public, and then oblige the town to charge themselves with the maintenance and repairs of it. Both an offer to dedicate and an acceptance may be express or implied. Siegel, supra at 919-20. Express acts that may constitute offers to dedicate include dedicating by deed, recording a plat and selling lots with reference to a plat. Id. at 919. Under New Hampshire law, conveying lots by reference to a recorded plan that shows the subdivision of a tract with proposed streets is one way to offer to dedicate a street to public use. 16 P. Loughlin, Municipal Law and Taxation § 45.01, at 422-23 (1993); see Polizzo, 126 N.H. at 401, 494 A.2d 254. Dedications also can be implied from circumstances or by acts or conduct of the owner that clearly indicate an intention to devote land to public use or from which a reasonable inference can be drawn. Siegel, supra at 919 (quotation omitted). Because [t]he intent of the dedicator is the foundation and life of all dedications, . . . [it] must be clearly and unequivocally manifested. 11A McQuillin, supra § 33.36, at 413. Similarly, acceptance may be by express acts that include adopting an offer of dedication by ordinance or formal resolution, or implied by acts such as opening up or improving a street, repairing it, removing snow from it, or assigning police patrols to it. Siegel, supra at 919-20. [P]roof of acceptance by the public must be unequivocal, clear and satisfactory, and inconsistent with any other construction. 11A McQuillin, supra § 33.54, at 472-73.