Opinion ID: 1808742
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Actions By The Public

Text: The evidence shows that Meade County initially improved the subject road by widening it in 1957. In doing so, the County graded, graveled, and installed culverts and a drainage ditch. The landowners did not merely acquiesce to this road work, they actively participated by removing their fences to accommodate the County. The record further shows that Meade County continued to maintain, repair, and perform snow removal on the road in 1966, 1972, and from 1975 through 1978. The trial court made the following conclusions: .... Meade County's conduct in performing improvements on and construction of the road ..., combined with the grading, graveling and snow removal performed by Meade County and the continuation of such maintenance and snow removal together with the control exercised over the road by Meade County constitutes an acceptance by the public of the dedication by implication of the road by [appellants] and [appellants'] predecessors in interest as a public road. .... The conduct of Meade County in improving the road by grading, graveling and snow removal together with Meade County approving and accepting the ... subdivision as a subdivision in Meade County (Meade County Ordinances requiring that each subdivision have a public access) Meade County accepted the road on behalf of the public. Based on this court's holdings in Evans, Edmunds, Haley, and Miller, supra, we cannot find that the trial court erred in concluding that County demonstrated acceptance of the roadway as a public road. Therefore, we find that Meade County's actions clearly justified acceptance by the public. Sponheim relies heavily on Brusseau, supra, wherein this court reversed the trial court's declaration of a public road through implied dedication, despite the fact that the landowners acquiesced in use of the road, and failed to object when the roadway was improved. In Brusseau, however, it was undisputed that neither the county, nor any other public body had ever expended any public funds for construction, repair, or maintenance of the road in question; nor claimed any ownership or control thereof. 245 N.W.2d at 491. This stands in sharp contrast to the actions of Meade County in the present case. In First Church, supra, we quoted with approval the words of the North Dakota Supreme Court in Cole v. Minnesota Loan & Trust Co., 17 N.D. 409, 117 N.W. 354, 359 (1908), as follows: `[O]wnership of land once had is not to be presumed to have been parted with; but the acts and declarations relied on to show a dedication should be unequivocal and decisive, manifesting a positive and unmistakable intention, on the part of the owner, to permanently abandon his property to the specific public use....' 68 S.D. at 385, 2 N.W.2d at 678. Applying this principle to this case, we find that the evidence positively and unequivocally manifested the appellants intention to permanently abandon their property, and the public's acceptance for use as a public road. Accordingly, we hold that the trial court's conclusion that an implied dedication existed and was accepted was not clearly erroneous.