Notwithstanding § 31-3-1, the mere use by the public of any route of travel along or across public or private land, or the right-of-way of any railroad company for any period, shall not operate to establish a public highway and no right shall inure to the public or any person by such use thereof.
S.D. Codified Laws § 31-3-2
Public highway not established by mere use
Applied in 7 court decisions — leading case Smith v. Sponheim (1987)
Most recently applied in Nelson v. Garber (May 2021)
Source: SL 1893, ch 100; RPolC 1903, § 1632; RC 1919, § 8613; SDC 1939, § 28.0104.
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.