SEC. 10. The town council may order and direct who shall be at Gates and bars, the charge of maintaining gates and bars where any driftway shall how mainbe laid out, and also whether the same shall be furnished with gates or bars.

SEC. 11. If any person, through whose land a highway or driftway is laid, shall be aggrieved by the doings of the committee or town council, he, his heir, or devisee may appeal to the next court of common pleas to be holden for the county in which such highway or driftway is located, giving bond to the town to prosecute his appeal, and producing an attested copy of the whole proceedings to such court, and filing his reasons of appeal with the clerk of the court, ten days before the sitting thereof.

tained.

Appeal from lay out, how and by whom taken.

Damages, &c.,

SEC. 12. Such appeal shall be tried in the same manner as other How tried. civil causes pending in said court, and the judgment of said court shall be final therein, except as to matters of law, which may, by either party, be brought before the supreme court, in the same manner, and with like effect, as is provided in cases of which the court of common pleas has exclusive original cognizance without appeal. SEC. 13. The charges for laying out any highway or driftway, and all such damages as shall be agreed for or adjudged to any person through whose land such highway or driftway is laid, either by the committee, town council, or court, shall be paid by the town treasurer of the town in which the highway or driftway is laid; and if he shall refuse or neglect to pay the same, an action may be brought and maintained for such money, by the person to whom the same is due and payable.

for lay out, how paid and recovered.

How, where claimants have ests.

different inter

SEC. 14. When persons having a claim for damages sustained in their lands by the laying out, alteration, or discontinuance of a highway, or by the taking of lands for the construction of waterworks or other public works, have separate or different interests in such lands, so that an estate for a term of years, or for life, belongs to one person, and remainders either contingent or vested, or the reversion in said lands belongs to others, entire damages, or an entire sum as indemnity, shall be assessed in the same manner as is provided in other cases where lands are so taken, without any apportionment thereof. SEC. 15. The amount of such damages or indemnity, subject to Same subject any and all liens thereon, shall be paid over and be recoverable by any person whom the parties owning the several interests in such lands may appoint, to be invested by him when paid over or recovered, in such manner as the supreme court shall direct, and held in trust for the benefit of the parties entitled thereto, according to their several interests, the annual income to be paid over to the person owning the estate for years, or life, for and during the continuance of such estates, and the remainder, after the termination of such estates, to be paid over to the persons entitled to the same.

SEC. 16. If any of the persons having an interest in such lands Trustee, when shall, by reason of any legal disability, be incapacitated from choos- and how appointed. ing a trustee, or if the parties in interest cannot agree upon a choice, the supreme court, upon application of any of the parties interested in such lands, and after notice to all parties interested, shall appoint some suitable person as trustee.

SEC. 17. Said trustee shall, before entering upon the duties of his Bond of trustrust, give a bond to the clerk of the supreme court, with surety or tee, to whom given. sureties to the satisfaction of said court, in such sum as said court shall direct, with condition for the faithful performance of his duties as trustee as aforesaid, which bond, upon breach of its condition, may

When lands

become high

ways from twenty years'

use.

Proceedings before declaring such lands highways.

Appeal from such proceedings, by whom and how taken.

Such highways to be platted.

Town councils may widen

such highways.

Proceedings,

been made.

be put in suit for the use and benefit of the person interested in such lands, in like manner as is provided in the case of bonds given by executors or administrators.

Highways declared such after twenty years' use.

SEC. 18. All lands which have or shall be quietly, peaceably, and actually used and improved, and considered as public highways for the space of twenty years, and which shall be declared by the town council of the town wherein they lie to be public highways, shall be taken and considered as public highways to all intents and purposes, as fully and effectually as if the same had been regularly laid out, recorded, and opened by the town council of the town where such lands may lie.

SEC. 19. Every town council, before they proceed to act under the provisions of the next preceding section, shall give personal notice of their intention to all persons interested, or who may have any claim to the land over which such highway passes, as described in said section, if known to reside in this state; and if not known, or if known to reside without the state, then in the manner prescribed by the sixth section of this chapter.

SEC. 20. Every person aggrieved by such proceedings may appeal therefrom to the next court of common pleas within the county in which such highway lies; first giving bond and filing reasons of appeal in the manner provided and required in the eleventh section of this chapter, whereupon like proceedings shall be had, in all respects, as is, in the eleventh and twelfth sections, provided.

SEC. 21. In declaring lands, which have been quietly, peaceably, and actually used and improved, and considered as public highways and streets, for the space of twenty years, to be public highways as aforesaid, the town council of the town in which such lands lie shall determine, mark out, plat, or cause to be marked out and platted, the lands, in width as well as length, by such use and improvement appropriated as public highways, and declared as such; and shall cause said plats to be recorded: but nothing herein contained shall be construed to affect the requirements or provisions of the preceding section.

SEC. 22. If any lands, used and improved for twenty years and upwards as a public highway or street, shall not, in the judgment of the town council, be wide enough for the necessities or convenience of the public, the town council may proceed to widen the said highway, in whole or in part, pursuing, as to the portion so widened, the steps required by law for laying out new highways.

SEC. 23. In case any lands have heretofore been declared to be a when no plat public highway, under the eighteenth section of this chapter, and no such plat was made and recorded as aforesaid, the town council may cause the lands, appropriated by such declaration as a public highway, to be marked out, platted, and recorded as aforesaid, in which case they shall give the notice, and their proceedings shall be subject to the appeal, above provided.

Proceedings before town council, evidence against whom, &c.

SEC. 24. The proceedings before the town council under the six sections next preceding, in so far as said proceedings shall not have been set aside on appeal taken as above provided, with the accompanying plat, or duly certified copies thereof, shall forever thereafter be conclusive evidence upon the town, and all parties notified, and their privies, as to the existence of the highway, in width and length, as platted, and primâ facie evidence thereof as to all others.

Land conveyed by deed for highways.

SEC. 25. Whenever the owner of any land shall make a deed thereof to the town wherein such land lies, for the especial purpose of being used and improved as a public highway, and the deed shall have been duly acknowledged and recorded, the land shall be thenceforward a public highway to all intents and purposes, and be liable to be opened by the town council of the town wherein the same shall lie, in the same manner as highways which are laid out by said town council; but no town shall be liable to repair such highway, until the town council thereof shall decree and order that the same shall be repaired at the expense of such town.

Land dedicated to highways and other purposes.

SEC. 26. Nothing in this chapter contained shall be construed to hinder or prevent the public from acquiring, by dedication or user, lands or any interests in lands for highways or other public uses, according to the course of the common law, or to take away or abridge any legal or equitable remedy by the common or the general law provided in cases of injuries to, or obstructions to, the enjoyment of lands, or any interest in lands thus or otherwise by law acquired by the public, or devoted to public uses.

SEC. 27. Nothing in the preceding section contained shall be construed to render any town liable for the mending and repairing of any highway, unless the same hall have been declared to be a public highway, by the town council of the town wherein it lies.

Alteration and discontinuance of highways.

SEC. 28. Town councils may mark out, relay, widen, straighten, change the location, or abandon the whole of, or any part of, any highway or driftway, whether laid out by the state or otherwise, except the highways on both sides of the Woonasquatucket River directed to be laid out by chapter 362 of the public laws, and thereupon like proceedings shall be had in all respects, so far as the same are applicable, including appeals, as are provided in this chapter in case of taking land, and ascertaining damages to the owners of lands taken in laying out, or in case of abandonment, of highways.

SEC. 29. Town councils shall have like control of any highway or driftway laid out by the general assembly, and the town in which the same lies shall be subject to like duties and liabilities in relation thereto, as they respectively have, or are subject to, in case of highways laid out by a town council.

SEC. 30. Whenever a highway or driftway, or any part of either, shall be declared to be useless, the liability of the town to keep the same in repair shall cease: Provided, the town council shall cause a sign to be placed at each end of such highway or driftway, having thereon the words, "Not a public highway;" but nothing herein contained shall affect the right which any person has to any public way over the land taken for the highways so declared to be useless, at the time of the taking thereof.

Highways created by deed, how opened and repaired.

Of interest by dedication or dies for injuries thereto.

user, and reme

Town not liable to repair, &c., highway, &c.

until declared a

Town councils may alter, &c., driftways. highways and

of highways laid out by general assembly.

Consequences of declaring highway or driftway useless.

SEC. 31. Every appeal taken from any order and decree of the Appeals, how town council under the provisions of this title shall be claimed within taken.

forty days from the rendition of the final decree, ordering such high

ways or driftways to be established, altered, discontinued, or laid open, except as provided in cases where an appeal survives.

CHAPTER 60.

OF REPAIRING HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES.

tors for injury caused by change 42. What islands exempted from pro-
of grade.
visions of this chapter.

pair.

SECTION 1. All highways, causeways, and bridges, except as is Towns to keep hereinafter provided, lying and being within the bounds of any town, highways and bridges in reshall be kept in repair and amended, from time to time, so that the same may be safe and convenient for travellers with their teams, carts, and carriages, at all seasons of the year, at the proper charge and expense of such town, under the care and direction of the surveyor of highways for such town.

SEC. 2. The town council of each town shall assign and appoint, in writing, annually, to the surveyors, their several limits and divisions of the highways for repair and amendments, unto which assignments the said surveyors shall conform.

SEC. 3. Each town, at some public meeting of the electors thereof who are entitled to vote upon any proposition to impose a tax, regularly notified and warned, shall vote and raise such sum of money, to be expended in labor and materials on the highways aforesaid, as they may deem necessary for that purpose; and either the assessors or the town council, as the town may direct, shall assess the same on the ratable estate of the inhabitants thereof, and all others owning ratable property therein, as other town taxes are by law assessed. SEC. 4. The town council shall determine the sum to be expended in repair of the highways within the limits of each surveyor, and the persons assessed as aforesaid who shall be liable to pay the same, and shall cause to be delivered to each surveyor a list of the said persons whose taxes may be so appropriated for the repair of highways within his limits, and the sums at which they are severally assessed.

SEC. 5. Upon the receipt of his tax bill, each surveyor shall give reasonable notice to each person in his list, of the sum he is assessed to the highways aforesaid, and also to the inhabitants within his district assessed as aforesaid of the times and places he shall appoint for providing materials and labor; to the end, that each person may have opportunity to work on the highways in person or by substitute, or with his oxen, horses, cart and plough, at the rates and prices the town or town council shall affix to such labor, to the full amount of the sum at which he is assessed; or he may pay the surveyor in money the sum he is assessed; in which case the surveyor shall carefully expend the sums thus paid, in labor and materials, for repairing the highways in his limits, according to his best discretion.

Town councils to assign disors of high

tricts to survey

ways.

Towns to raise money to repair highways.

Town councils to fix sum to be expended in each district,

&c.

Surveyor to give notice to of sum assessed, &c.

person assessed

To return list

of delinquents to assessors;

how collected.

SEC. 6. Immediately after the expiration of one year from the assessment of any such tax, each surveyor shall render to the assessors for the time being a list of such persons as shall have been deficient, if any there be, in working out their highway rate or otherwise paying him the sum assessed therefor, together with the amount of each person's deficiency; which deficient sums shall, by the assessors, be deficiencies, put in a distinct column in the next assessment for the town tax, and be collected by the collector thereof as other town taxes are collected, and paid into the town treasury for the use of the town, to be specially appropriated and expended in repair of the highways within the limits of the town or district to which the tax of such delinquent was originally assigned and appointed or assessed.

SEC. 7. If any surveyor, at the expiration of the term aforesaid, or whenever required by the said town, shall neglect to make to the assessors, or the town clerk for their use, the returns required by the

Penalty on surveyor neglecting to make such return.