Opinion ID: 1906006
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: public vs. private use

Text: Appellant's first contention is that the right-of-way is a private road for the use and enjoyment of a private individual. Respondents concede that intervenors would benefit most directly from the right-of-way. However, that fact alone is not conclusive of the private as opposed to public nature of the right-of-way because the public has an interest in having access to each and every member thereof. Mueller v. Supervisors of Town of Courtland, 1912, 117 Minn. 290, 135 N.W. 996. The controlling factor is not the necessity or the fact of the use but the right to use the right-of-way. Illinois Central Railroad Company v. East Sioux Falls Quarry Company, 1913, 33 S.D. 63, 144 N.W. 724. The right-of-way is public if everyone who desires may lawfully use the right-of-way. It is the right of travel by all the world, not the actual exercise of the right which constitutes a road a public highway. Road Dist. No. 4 v. Frailey, 1924, 313 Ill. 568, 145 N.E. 195; Department of Public Works and Buildings v. Farina, 1963, 29 Ill.2d 474, 194 N.E.2d 209. There is nothing in the statute which indicates that the isolated tract owner can restrict travel upon the right-of-way or that all members of the public do not have the right to travel over the right-of-way. Appellant contends that the label that is attached to the right-of-way by SDCL 31-22 is important in determining the character of the road. See Moritz v. Buglewicz, 1972, 187 Neb. 819, 194 N.W.2d 215. However, since the statute never expressly refers to the right-of-way as either public or private, we can conclude but little from the lack of a public or private label. One indication that the intent of the legislature in passing SDCL 31-22 was to create a public road is that the county auditor is directed to record the right-of-way in his or her record of highways. See SDCL 31-22-4. The 1970 amendment, which allows the use of this process where the section line right-of-way is impassable, reinforces the intent, in that it is a public way taken to replace the section line right-of-way. Appellant also contends that under SDCL 31-22-8, [2] the maintenance and upkeep of the right-of-way are the sole responsibility of the isolated tract owner. Appellant interprets the statute as relieving the county of all responsibility for the right-of-way. This, it contends, will allow the isolated tract owner to abandon the right-of-way by neglecting to properly maintain it. Although the primary responsibility for maintenance and the expense is placed upon the isolated tract owner, the statute does not relieve the county of its responsibility to maintain its public highways. See SDCL 31-12-6, 31-12-19, and 31-12-24. Next, appellant contends that the isolated tract owner has total dominion over the right-of-way due to the fact that he is required [3] to maintain and keep closed a gate at every fence line which his right-of-way passes or to fence both sides of the right-of-way. This total dominion by the isolated tract owner indicates the private nature of the roadway, according to appellant, because the tract owner may use the right-of-way at his pleasure and permit or deny the use of the road to the public merely by locking the gate. We disagree with appellant. If the isolated tract owner installs gates at every fence which the right-of-way crosses, the statute requires only that he keep the gate closed. SDCL 31-22-7 does not give him, and we conclude he does not have, the authority to regulate traffic by locking the gate. Although the mere existence of a gate on a public highway may be the antithesis of public use, the practice has been statutorily recognized in the grazing lands of this state. See SDCL 31-25. Furthermore, SDCL 31-22-7 gives the subservient the option of requesting the installation of fences along the right-of-way. When that option is exercised, as it was here, the isolated tract owner cannot dominate the right-of-way suggested by appellant. The principle to be deduced    seems to be that if, by a fair construction and operation of the statute, the road, when laid out, is in fact a public road, for the use of all who may desire to use it, the law is not liable to the charge of unconstitutionality, and is valid, though the road may be laid out on application, paid for, and kept in repair, by the petitioner, and primarily designed for his benefit,   . Towns v. Klamath Co., 33 Or. 225, 53 P. 606; Fanning v. Gilliland, 37 Or. 369, 61 P. 636. The authority, although old, is still recognized by the treatise writers and is comparable to the assessments against abutting landowners for the cost of street and sidewalk improvements. 2A Nichols Eminent Domain § 7.626, 26 Am.Jur.2d Eminent Domain § 36. We think a fair construction of SDCL 31-22 provides that the right-of-way created was intended to be, and is, a public right-of-way open to all the world. [4]