Horne v. Rochester
Supreme Court of New Hampshire
Case, for injuries received from a defective highway. Verdict for the plaintiff. The highway was laid out by the selectmen on petition in 1869, and has since been maintained by the town and used as a public highway.
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Case, for injuries received from a defective highway. Verdict for the plaintiff. The highway was laid out by the selectmen on petition in 1869, and has since been maintained by the town and used as a public highway. In the record of the laying out, the order of notice given by the selectmen did not require a copy of the petition and order to be posted at the usual place of town-meeting, and a like copy to be left with the town-clerk, as required by General Statutes, c. 233, s. 3, and the return on the petition did not show that there was such service or posting. The defendants objected to the…
1Opinion of the CourtStanley, J.
The duties of selectmen in laying out highways are principally judicial. The fact alone that they might deem the construction of a public way between two points necessary and convenient for the public travel would not authorize them to lay it out as a highway. Nor could the town authorize them, as its agents, to assume duties- of that character. Haywood v. Charlestown, 34 N. H. 23, 26; State v. Rye, 35 N. H. 368; State v. Newmarket, 20 N. H. 519. Whatever power they have in this respect they derive from the legislature, which has constituted them the tribunal to determine, in the first…
2Cases cited9 opinions
- Roderigas v. . East River Savings InstitutionNew York Court of Appeals · 1875
- Hendrick v. WhittemoreMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1870
- Coit v. HavenSupreme Court of Connecticut · 1861
- Ballinger v. TarbellSupreme Court of Iowa · 1864
- Brimmer v. City of BostonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1869
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3Cited by4 opinions
- State v. CorronSupreme Court of New Hampshire · 1905
- Grand Trunk Railway Co. v. BerlinSupreme Court of New Hampshire · 1894
- Harris v. ParkerSupreme Court of New Hampshire · 1890
- Ledoux v. NashuaSupreme Court of New Hampshire · 1910