The board of county commissioners of any county having within its boundaries, any county, township, or section-line highway not included in § 31-25-1.1 extending or running through or across grazing land, may, upon petition, signed by a majority of the adjacent landowners along the portion of such highway involved, and after a hearing is had, on notice mailed by the county auditor to all of said landowners, not less than ten days before such hearing, authorize such landowners to erect and maintain fences across such highway. However, the board of county commissioners shall require the erection of gates or grates, or both, in such fences at points designated by the board, so that the public may have access to the highway.
S.D. Codified Laws § 31-25-1
Fences across highways--Petition by adjacent landowners--Notice and hearing--Gates or grates required
Applied in 4 court decisions — leading case K & E Land and Cattle, Inc. v. Mayer (1983)
Most recently applied in Patterson v. Plowboy, LLC (April 2021)
Source: SL 1943, ch 39; SDC Supp 1960, § 12.0617-3; SL 1984, ch 215, § 1.
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.