Opinion ID: 2449953
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Halvorsons' procedural due process claims

Text: The Halvorsons argue that they have also been deprived of their property without procedural due process. [5] Procedural due process requires that a party be provided with an opportunity to be heard at a meaningful time and in a meaningful manner. Due process is not a concept rigidly applied to every adversarial confrontation, but instead is a flexible concept calling for such procedural protections as are warranted by the situation. Paul v. Bd. of Prof'l Discipline of Idaho State Bd. of Med., 134 Idaho 838, 843, 11 P.3d 34, 39 (2000) (internal citations and quotations omitted). This Court has previously found that, in cases of the establishment of a public highway, where a landowner has the opportunity to contest the establishment of a public highway, due process has been afforded. Ada Cnty. Highway Dist. v. Total Success Invs., LLC, 145 Idaho 360, 371, 179 P.3d 323, 334 (2008). Whether through this proceeding, the potential to bring an inverse condemnation claim, or the potential to quiet title over the land being used, the Halvorsons and their predecessors have had the opportunity to be heard on this issue. In addition to that, the Halvorsons were not denied the opportunity for a validation proceeding. [6] Instead, they instituted this suit to attempt to vindicate what they thought were their rights. The Halvorsons have been heard on this issue. Due process does not require that they prevail. While the Halvorsons do not explicitly raise a notice claim, that too would fail. The requirement that a highway be used continuously and publicly for a period of five years is in place precisely to ensure that where the public is using a portion of the land, the landowner has actual or constructive notice that the use is occurring and has the opportunity to challenge that use. In this way, it is analogous to a prescriptive easement or adverse possession. The purpose of the requirement that prescriptive use be open and notorious is to give the owner of the servient tenement knowledge and opportunity to assert his rights against the development of an easement by prescription. The open and notorious use must rise to the level reasonably expected to provide notice of the adverse use to a servient landowner maintaining a reasonable degree of supervision over his premises. Anderson v. Larsen, 136 Idaho 402, 406, 34 P.3d 1085, 1089 (2001). Camps Canyon Road's status as a public highway was established before the Halvorsons acquired their property. There is no dispute as to whether the Halvorsons were aware of the existence of Camps Canyon Road; rather, this dispute arises from the Halvorsons' erroneous beliefs as to the procedures that are required to establish a public highway and whether the dimension of such a highway is defined by use or by statute.