Opinion ID: 1145227
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the state's appeal as to the peases' property

Text: We turn first to the appeal of the State as it relates to the Peases' property. The patent to the 2.5 acre Pease parcel was issued on October 4, 1955, pursuant to the Small Tract Act of 1938, 43 U.S.C. §§ 682a-682e (1938), repealed by Pub.L. No. 94-579, Title VII, § 702 (1976). The lot was leased to the Peases' predecessor-in-interest on May 1, 1953. The patent contains two relevant reservations. One is a blanket reservation for roads constructed or to be constructed by or under authority of the United States or by any State created out of the Territory of Alaska, ... This reservation was made pursuant to 48 U.S.C. § 321d, ch. 313, 61 Stat. 418 (1947), repealed by Pub.L. No. 86-70, § 21(d)(7), 73 Stat. 146 (1959), which provides in part: In all patents for lands hereafter taken up, entered, or located in the Territory of Alaska, and in all deeds by the United States hereafter conveying any lands to which it may have reacquired title in said Territory not included within the limits of any organized municipality, there shall be expressed that there is reserved, from the lands described in said patent or deed, a right-of-way thereon for roads, roadways, highways, tramways, trails, bridges, and appurtenant structures constructed or to be constructed by or under the authority of the United States or of any State created out of the Territory of Alaska... . The other relevant reservation in the patent reserves a 33 foot right-of-way for roadway purposes along the south and east boundaries of the tract. Rabbit Creek Road lies on the south boundary of the Peases' property. As this case has been presented all parties have assumed that Rabbit Creek Road was in existence as a local road at all times relevant to the various orders hereafter discussed. We make the same assumption. In 1978 the State widened Rabbit Creek Road from 66 feet to 100 feet. The road occupied a 33 foot strip on the Peases' property before widening and a 50 foot strip after widening. The State claimed a 50 foot easement on each side of the center line of Rabbit Creek Road, citing PLOs 601 [1] and 757, [2] and DO 2665 [3] as authority for widening the road without compensating the Peases for taking the extra 17 feet. PLO 601, effective August 10, 1949, withdrew the public lands in Alaska lying within ... 150 feet on each side of the center line of all ... through roads, 100 feet on each side of the center line of all feeder roads, and 50 feet on each side of the center line of all local roads, ... from all forms of appropriation under the public land laws, ... and reserved them for highway purposes. [4] The Secretary of the Interior promulgated PLO 757 and DO 2665 on October 19, 1951. 16 Fed.Reg. 10,749, 10,752 (1951). DO 2665 was filed first. Id. at 10,752. It established, among other things, easements, rather than withdrawals, of 50 feet on each side of the center line of each local road and of 100 feet as to each feeder road. [5] PLO 757 amended the sixth paragraph of PLO 601, see note 4 supra, increasing the withdrawal for the Seward Highway [the Anchorage-Potter-Indian Road in PLO 601] from 100 feet to 150 feet on each side of the center line. 16 Fed.Reg. 10,749, 10,750 (1951). PLO 757 repealed the general withdrawal for local and feeder roads contained in the sixth paragraph of PLO 601, thus effecting a revocation of the 601 withdrawals as to them. However, PLO 757 acknowledged that DO 2665 had already established easements as to feeder and local roads and did not purport to revoke them. The final paragraph of PLO 757 states: Easements having been established on the lands released by this order, such lands are not open to appropriation under the public land laws... . [6] Thus one effect of PLO 757 and DO 2665 was to substitute easements for the withdrawals made in PLO 601 as to local and feeder roads. The State's claim to the full 50 feet, from the center line, of Rabbit Creek Road is in all relevant respects identical to the claim that it successfully asserted in State, Department of Highways v. Green, 586 P.2d 595 (Alaska 1978). In Green, as in the Peases' claim, the patents were issued by the United States under the Small Tract Act and contained blanket roadway easements under 48 U.S.C. § 321d as well as specific 33 foot easements. The local road in question in both cases was built before DO 2665 was promulgated, and the lease as well as the patent was issued after promulgation of DO 2665. We held in Green that DO 2665 was issued pursuant to 48 U.S.C. § 321a, as distinct from 48 U.S.C. § 321d; that DO 2665 was applicable to patents issued under the Small Tract Act; and that the 50 foot right-of-way established by DO 2665 was effective even though only a 33 foot right-of-way was expressed in the patent. 586 P.2d at 600-03. The superior court reasoned that Green was not controlling because of the provisions of the Right-of-Way Act of 1966, ch. 92 S.L.A. 1966. [7] Sections 2 and 3 contain the operative provisions of the Right-of-Way Act of 1966. Section 2 precludes the State from taking privately owned property by the election or exercise of a reservation to the state acquired under [48 U.S.C. § 321d], and section 3 provides that the Act shall not be construed to divest the State of any right-of-way or other interest in real property which was taken by the state, before the effective date of this Act, by the election or exercise of its right to take property through a reservation acquired under [48 U.S.C. § 321d]. The effective date of the Right-of-Way Act of 1966 was April 14, 1966. The court erred in applying the Right-of-Way Act of 1966 to the Pease case. It is applicable only to interests taken by the State under a blanket reservation created pursuant to 48 U.S.C. § 321d. We held in Green that easements established by DO 2665 were established under the authority of section 321a, not section 321d. [8] Green, 586 P.2d at 600 n. 17. Further, we held in State, Department of Highways v. Crosby, 410 P.2d 724 (Alaska 1966) that § 321d did not apply at all to patents issued under the Small Tract Act. Id. at 728. The superior court also concluded in its Memorandum of Decision that the easement which otherwise would have been created under DO 2665 on Rabbit Creek Road did not come into being until the right-of-way was staked by the terms of DO 2665. This statement refers to subsection 3(c) of DO 2665, which provides: The reservation mentioned in paragraph (a) and the rights-of-way or easements mentioned in paragraph (b) will attach as to all new construction involving public roads in Alaska when the survey stakes have been set on the ground and notices have been posted at appropriate points along the route of the new construction specifying the type and width of the roads. [9] The superior court's conclusion that the staking requirement of section 3(c) was applicable to Rabbit Creek Road is erroneous. Section 3(c) by its express terms only applies to new construction. Rabbit Creek Road was an existing road when the order was promulgated. As to existing roads, subsection 3(b) of the order establishes a 50 foot easement in the present, rather than the future, tense and contains no call for additional action in order to fix the easement. It states: A right-of-way or easement for highway purposes covering the lands embraced in the ... local roads equal in extent to the width of such roads as established in section 2 of this order, is hereby established for such roads over and across the public lands. 16 Fed.Reg. 10,752 (1951) (emphasis added). Subsection (3) of section 2 of DO 2665 set the width of local roads at 50 feet on each side of the center line. Thus, these two sections of DO 2665 established a 50 foot easement for Rabbit Creek Road. The history of the promulgation of DO 2665 also demonstrates that the staking requirement applies only to new construction, not existing roads. In territorial days road easements were created across public land under 43 U.S.C. § 932, repealed by Pub.L. No. 94-579, Title VII, § 706(a) (1976), a statute remarkable for its brevity, which provided: The right-of-way for the construction of highways over public lands, not reserved for public uses, is hereby granted. This blanket grant had to be accepted. A common method of acceptance was the building of a road by a public authority. [10] But other methods of acceptance were also recognized. As we stated in Hamerly v. Denton, 359 P.2d 121 (Alaska 1961) with respect to 43 U.S.C. § 932: [B]efore a highway may be created, there must be either some positive act on the part of the appropriate public authorities of the state, clearly manifesting an intention to accept a grant, or there must be public user for such a period of time and under such conditions as to prove that the grant has been accepted. Id. at 123 (footnote omitted). In Girves v. Kenai Peninsula Borough, 536 P.2d 1221 (Alaska 1975), we held that enactment by the territorial legislature of a law dedicating a four rod strip along all section lines for roadway purposes was a positive act of acceptance of the section 932 grant. Id. at 1225-26. When acceptance of the section 932 grant occurred by construction of a road by an appropriate public authority, a question remained regarding the width of the right-of-way thereby created. It was held that the width was not confined necessarily to the traveled portion of the roadway, but that local laws, customs and usages would control. City of Butte v. Mikosowitz, 39 Mont. 350, 102 P. 593, 595-96 (1909); see also Ball v. Stephens, 68 Cal. App.2d 843, 158 P.2d 207, 209 (1945). One purpose of DO 2665 was to define as a matter of local law or usage the width of roadway easements which had been created by the construction of roads and which would be created in the future by the construction of new roads. The memorandum of February 7, 1951, from the chief counsel of the Bureau of Land Management to the Bureau's director [11] makes this clear: Notwithstanding that section 2477 of the Revised Statutes (43 U.S.C. § 932) does not fix the width of the rights-of-way granted by it, the width when fixed by a positive act of the proper State or Territorial authorities has been held valid. Costain v. Turner (1949) [72 S.D. 427], 36 N.W.2d 382; Butte v. Mikosowitz (1909) [39 Mont. 350], 102 P. 593. In both cases, the width fixed included an area in excess of the beaten path or track. The reasons which sustain the conclusion reached in those cases support the conclusion that in the case of public highways in Alaska constructed or maintained under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Interior, the width of the highways may be fixed by that official. The memo goes on to suggest the publication of an order, which was to become DO 2665, in terms which make it clear that the staking requirement only applies to new construction and not to existing roads: The following procedure is suggested for the establishment of highway easements of prescribed widths in Alaska: (1) The issuance of an order by the Secretary of the Interior to be published in the Federal Register fixing the width for existing roads and the width for new construction, including changes in the location of existing roads, and extensions of such roads. In the case of new construction, the order can only be effective when the survey stakes have been set on the ground. (Emphasis added). Further, the Superior Court's conclusion that the staking requirement applies to existing roads as well as to roads to be constructed in the future is in conflict with our holding in Green, supra . The local road in question there was constructed before the promulgation of DO 2665. As to the Green parcel, we held that the 50 foot right-of-way was fixed as of the promulgation of the order. Green, 586 P.2d at 604. For these reasons we conclude that the State's appeal with respect to the adverse judgment on the cross-claim of the Peases is well-founded. The third paragraph of the declaratory judgment is therefore reversed. Since the first paragraph of the judgment includes the situation presented in the Pease case, it too must be reversed.