assessment of damages made by the selectmen, he may within one year after such road is opened, petition the court of common pleas for redress; and the said court after due notice to the town and others interested, may award such damages as may be just, and costs to either of the parties in their discretion, and issue execution therefor.

SEC. 10. Any person, who had no actual notice of the laying out or altering of any highway, may within one year after the same shall be opened and made, apply to the said court as provided in the preceding section, and the court after notice as aforesaid shall award damages and costs and issue execution therefor, as is therein provided.

SECTION 1. The road commissioners, on every petition referred to them, shall appoint a time and place at which they will commence the discharge of their duties thereon.

SEC. 2. They shall give notice to the selectmen of each town in which the highway to which such petition relates, is or may pass, and to the owners of land, in the same manner as selectmen are required to give such notice to owners of land; and in case any one of the commissioners shall be unable to attend agreeably to notice at the time and place of hearing, the two commissioners who do attend may appoint some suitable person to act in his stead.

SEC. 3. They shall make examination and hear all parties interested, in the same manner as selectmen are required to do, and shall have like powers.

SEC. 4. They shall make report to the court in each county

in which any highway laid out, altered or discontinued by them,

shall pass.

SEC. 5. In such report, they shall certify the names of the several owners of land taken for such road, to whom notice was given personally or left at their usual places of abode respectively, and in what manner notice was given to other like owners and to selectmen of towns. In case the owners of land have had a legal notice and the commissioners return a wrong name in their report, the court on satisfactory evidence of the error may alter or amend the same.

SEC. 6. A particular description of the new highway laid out, and its width, and of any alterations made in any highway already established, shall be inserted in such report, with their estimate of the expense of building or making the same.

SEC. 7. The road commissioners shall assess the damages sustained by owners of land, as selectmen are required to do, and insert the same in their report, stating such damages in each town separately; and shall certify the damages awarded to such owners in each town, to the town clerk thereof, fourteen days before the sitting of the court to which their report is returnable.

SEC. 8. If any such owner shall be dissatisfied with the amount of damages awarded him by the commissioners under the preceding section, he may appeal to the court of common pleas next to be holden in the county and not afterwards, and thereupon said court shall assess his damages by a jury; and if he recover a greater sum than that allowed by the commissioners, he shall have full costs against the town; if an equal or less sum, he shall pay costs. SEC. 9. The road commissioners may prescribe in their report the grade or rise and fall to the road, of any highway by them laid out, or of any existing highway for which a proposed highway not laid out might be a substitute; and their report being accepted, if any town shall neglect to make such highway in conformity thereto, such town may be indicted and fined as for neglect to make or repair highways.

SEC. 10. Whenever a new highway from one town to another shall be laid out by the road commissioners over any river or other stream of water constituting the boundary line between said towns, and it shall be necessary, in the opinion of said commissioners, to construct said highway across said river or other stream by bridg ing, the said road commissioners shall determine the points in the side lines of said highway where the same cross the said boundary line, and shall, in their report laying out said highway, establish and describe the same by reference to monuments on the shore of said river or other stream, or in some other definite manner so as that said points may be readily ascertained and known; and the report of said commissioners being accepted and judgment rendered thereon, the line across said highway between said points shall, for all purposes connected with and relating to said highway,

be deemed and taken to be the true boundary line between said towns at that place. (Laws of 1851, chap. 1099.)

SEC. 11. Each road commissioner shall be allowed in each case in full for his services and expenses, ten cents a mile for actual travel each way and two dollars a day for the time necessarily spent in making the examination and report, excluding the time of travelling to and from the place of examination; and in case there shall be more than one road to examine in any town at the same time, but one travel shall be allowed.

CHAPTER 55.

OF POWER OF ROAD COMMISSIONERS TO APPORTION EXPENSE IN CERTAIN CASES.

SECTION 1. Whenever, upon any petition referred to them, the road commissioners for any county or counties in this State shall be of opinion that the road prayed for, or any portion thereof, is demanded for the public accommodation, and shall lay out the same, if in their opinion the town or towns through which the same passes would be excessively burdened by defraying the whole expenses of constructing the same, said commissioners shall make examination of all the circumstances relating to such road, its public utility, the expense of its construction, the ability of such town or towns to bear the expense, and the benefit to such town or towns and any other towns in the vicinity, from the construction thereof; and if upon such examination said commissioners shall be of opinion that the town or towns through which the proposed road passes would be excessively burdened by defraying all the expenses of its construction; and that any other town or towns in the vicinity, in the county or counties through which said road passes, would be greatly benefitted by its construction, they shall give notice as in other cases to such other town or towns as in their opinion would be thus greatly benefitted, of the time and place when and where they may be heard in the premises; and if upon such hearing said commissioners shall be of opinion that

such town or towns ought to bear any portion of the expenses of constructing such road, they shall, in their report laying out the same, apportion such part of said expenses as they shall deem just and reasonable, to such town or towns in the county or counties through which said road passes as will in their judgment be greatly benefitted by its construction, to be borne by such town or towns; and any such report of said commissioners being accepted and judgment rendered thereon, shall be final and conclusive, and execution issue accordingly.

SEC. 2. Any town or towns other than the town or towns through which the same passes, that may have been directed, in any report of the road commissioners upon which judgment shall have been rendered, to defray any portion of the expense of laying out and building any road as aforesaid, shall be liable for neglecting to comply with its requirements in the same way and manner as the towns through which the same passes are or may be by law liable for neglecting to build the same.

SEC. 3. Any town may raise money by taxation or otherwise for the purpose of paying the proportion of the expense of laying out and building any road in any other town, ordered by the road commissioners to be paid by such town.

SECTION 1. No new highway or alteration in any highway shall be made by any town until the damages awarded to the owners of land or other estate taken therefor shall be paid, except in cases provided by law.

SEC. 2. If the owner of such land or real estate is a minor or insane and has no guardian, or resides out of the State, or is unknown, such new highway or alteration may be made without tender or payment of their damages.

SEC. 3. If any highway or alteration therein shall be laid out

and established, any person to whom any damages shall be awarded, may recover the same with interest from the person or town liable to pay the same, in case the same shall not be paid to him within thirty days after the same shall be demanded.

SEC. 4. All actions to recover damages awarded for lands taken for highways which may be discontinued, shall be brought within six months from the time of such discontinuance, and not afterwards.

SEC. 5. In actions for the recovery of damages for lands taken for highways, only the amount of the actual loss or damage sustained shall be recovered, in case such highway has been discontinued.

SEC. 6. If a fine shall be imposed upon any town for not making or altering any highway, and an agent shall be appointed to superintend the making thereof, the court on motion may issue execution against such town for the damages awarded to any land owner, and such highway may be made or altered without payment or tender thereof.

SEC. 7. The damages assessed upon the laying out of any highway for the accommodation of individuals shall be paid by them. Those assessed upon the laying out or altering of any highway for the accommodation of the public, shall be paid by the town in which the land taken for such highway shall lie.

SEC. 8. The court of common pleas, if they deem the expense of laying out any new highway, paying the damages and building the same unjustly burdensome to any town, may order a part, not exceeding one half such expense, to be paid by the county; and may draw an order on the county treasurer in favor of such town therefor.

SEC. 9. The costs of laying out and of widening and straightening highways from town to town, or through land not in any town, shall be paid by the county.

SEC. 10. The costs of laying out and of widening and straightening any highway in any town, shall be paid by the town, except such part thereof as the court of common pleas may order to be paid by the county.

CHAPTER 57.

OF THE NEGLECT OF TOWNS TO MAKE AND REPAIR HIGHWAYS.