State v. Berry

Decided April 15, 1842

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine · decided 1842-04-15

The location of a town or private way by the selectmen, or their order, must precede the issuing of the warrant to call the meeting for its acceptance. • A town or private way cannot bo proved by- parol, to sustain an indictment against an individual for obstructing it. The law on this subject was not changed by the itev. St. c. 25, § 101. The records of a town which are not admissible to prove the existence of a legal town way, cannot be admitted to show the limits, or outside lines, of the road,.although it may have been proved that a road had been actually travelled sonmwhere witliin those limits for more than twenty years.

Cited by 1 later decisions — most recently February 1877

1 state decisions

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1842-04-15

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¶1On the last day of the same term, the Court, by Tenney J. remarked, that the records offered in evidence were clearly inadmissible for several reasons; of which, a sufficient one is, that the road was not laid out until after the meeting was called at which the report was accepted.

¶2A town or private way cannot be proved by parol, to sustain an indictment against an individual for obstructing it. This is well settled, and not now an open question.

¶3 *175The records are inadmissible for any purpose; and of course, the extent of the travelled road cannot be proved by them.

¶4But it is contended by the counsel for the State, that the law has been altered by the Revised Statutes. The section referred to cannot be extended farther, than its terms indicate. This case does not come within its provisions.

¶5 The exceptions are sustained.