Court Opinion

ID: 9551419
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:53:01.949361+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:23:45.199936
License: Public Domain

TUCKETT, Justice
(concurring and dissenting) :
I concur in the decision of the majority insofar as it affirms the judgment of the lower court on the question of damages sustained by the plaintiff on his claim for the loss of certain sheep. I respectfully dissent to that portion of the majority decision which reverses the lower court on its determination that the Grass Creek road was not a public way. I particularly object to that portion of the decision which states that:
Due to a landslide in the early 1950’s and the failure of the county to keep the road in repair, the public departed from the road in places and traveled along an old abandoned railroad right of way. There was no objection by the railroad company to the use being made, and since this deviation continued for more than ten years, that part of the railroad right of way which was used by the public became the Grass Creek road.
The record shows and the court found that for approximately 40 years the defendants and their predecessors in interest had leased the right of way from the railroad company, and it thus appears that the railroad had no right to object nor to concur in the use of the right of way by members of the public. The record further shows that segments of the railroad right of way had been improved by defendants and their predecessors to enable them to use it as a private way. Defendants had the right to exclude the public from those segments of the right of way. Even though the defendant Ralph Judd and his father before him permitted others owning property in the area to use that portion of the right of way this does not support the majority’s determination that the entire way was public. It should be noted that the majority opinion deals with rights of the railway company even though it was not made a party.