There is along every section line in this state a public highway located by operation of law, except where some portion of the highway along such section line has been heretofore vacated or relocated by the lawful action of some authorized public officer, board, or tribunal.
S.D. Codified Laws § 31-18-1
Existence of section-line highways by operation of law
Applied in 18 court decisions — leading case Benson v. State (2006)
Most recently applied in Patterson v. Plowboy, LLC (April 2021)
Source: SL 1870-1, ch 33, § 1; PolC 1877, ch 29, § 1; CL 1887, § 1189; RPolC 1903, § 1594; RC 1919, § 8519; SDC 1939, § 28.0102.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.