State v. McDaniel

Decision Date31 December 1860
Citation8 Jones 284,53 N.C. 284
PartiesSTATE v. A. P. McDANIEL.
CourtNorth Carolina Supreme Court
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE

A road only one mile long, and from ten to fifteen feet wide, leading from a public highway to a church, and used by the people of the neighborhood for sixty years in going to and from the church, and which connected with a country road leading to a mill in the neighborhood, and to a railroad station, but which had never been under the charge of an overseer, nor worked as a public highway, is not a public highway so as to subject one to indictment for obstructing it.

This was an INDICTMENT against the defendant for obstructing a public highway, tried before SAUNDERS, J., at Fall Term, 1860, of Guilford Superior Court.

The following is a special verdict found by the jury in the case.

We find that the road described in the bill of indictment, hath been used for sixty years by the people of the neighborhood of Bethel Church, in passing from an established and admitted highway to and from Bethel Church; that the distance from the admitted highway to the Church is one mile; that this road is connected with other roads leading to different places in the neighborhood, and with another country road used by the neighbors in getting to a mill in the neighborhood, and to the McLean station on the North Carolina railroad, for the last four or five years; that the road was from ten to fifteen feet wide, not wide enough at some places for wagons to pass each other on the path, and was never, to the recollection of any one, under the charge of an overseer, or worked on as a public road, as charged in the bill. If the Court should be of opinion, that from the foregoing facts, the defendant is guilty in law, we find the defendant guilty, otherwise we find him not guilty.”

The Court being of opinion with the defendant, gave judgment accordingly. Solicitor for the State appealed to this Court.

Attorney General, for the State .

No counsel appeared for the defendant in this Court.

MANLY, J.

The special verdict in this case presents the enquiry, whether mere use of a way or road by the people of a neighborhood for a long lapse of time, to go to church and other neighboring places, is a public road. The road does not appear to have been laid off agreeably to the provisions of our statute law; it is not of the width prescribed for our highways, and it has not been treated as a highway by the appointment of an overseer with laborers to keep it in...

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11 cases
  • West v. Slick, 111PA83
    • United States
    • North Carolina Supreme Court
    • February 27, 1985
    ...bearing on the question of adverse use by the public of the roadway claimed. See, e.g., Boyden v. Achenbach, 79 N.C. 539; State v. McDaniel, 53 N.C. 284 (1860); and Davis v. Ramsey, 50 N.C. 236 In the year 1882, however, the court made two seemingly conflicting statements with regard to the......
  • State v. Haynie
    • United States
    • North Carolina Supreme Court
    • March 3, 1915
    ...have exerted control, and for the reparation of which they are responsible." State v. Purify, supra (by Ruffin, J.), citing State v. McDaniel, 53 N.C. 284, Boyden v. Achenbach, supra. The proof in this case is that the public authorities had never exercised any control over this way, and th......
  • State Highway Commission v. Batts, 286
    • United States
    • North Carolina Supreme Court
    • September 29, 1965
    ...of public resort, and it is held that a cul de sac may be a public highway, although, of course, it is not necessarily one.' In State v. McDaniel, 53 N.C. 284, defendant was placed on trial on an indictment for obstructing a public highway. The jury found a special verdict. The trial court ......
  • Hoggard v. Mitchell
    • United States
    • North Carolina Supreme Court
    • November 4, 1920
    ... ... position taken from 2 Thompson on Trials, § 2407, is ... recognized as sound and just in reference to criminal causes ... in State v. Exum, 138 N.C. 599-619, 50 S.E. 283, and ... as to civil suits in Kornegay v. Railroad, 154 N.C ... 389, 70 S.E. 731, has been again and ... Williams, 87 N.C ... 6; Boyden v. Achenbach, 86 N.C. 397; Id., 79 N.C ... 539; Crump v. Mims, 64 N.C. 767; State v ... McDaniel, 53 N.C. 284 ...          In some ... of the later cases on the subject it is recognized that the ... existence of a public way may not ... ...
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