notice posted near each end and one notice on each mile of said road. (L. '01, p. 190, §3; P. C., §7846.)

37. Order.

On the day set for hearing of said report the commissioners shall consider the same, together with the petition, and any objection that may be made to vacating the road, and if the road may be useful as a part of the general road system it shall not be vacated, but if the public will be benefited by the vacation then the commissioners may vacate the road or any portion thereof, and not otherwise; if the commissioners shall determine to vacate the road, or any part thereof, they shall, on payment of all costs by the principal petitioner, declare the road vacated and make a record of the same. (L. '01, p. 191, §4; P. C., §7847.)

38. Costs.

The clerk of the board of county commissioners shall make a statement in writing of all costs and expenses incurred in the proceedings and file the same with the county treasurer who shall proceed to collect the same. (L. '01, p. 191, §5; P. C., $7848.)

39. Method Exclusive.

No public road or highway or part thereof shall be vacated or cease to be a public highway until so ordered by the proper board of county commissioners, or by operation of law, or judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction. (L. '01, p. 191, §6; P. C., §7849.)

Vacation by non-use-§44.

Vacation by petition-§§34-37.

Railroad putting track on county road-§240a.

40. Effect of Plat.

The approval of any plat by the board of county commissioners or mayor and common council of any municipality shall not vacate any street, public road, or highway covered by such plat or over which such plat is laid. (L. '01, p. 191, §7; P. C., $7850.)

41. Viewers.

If a person appointed by the county commissioners as a viewer, reviewer or surveyor of any road, refuse or neglect to perform the duties required by this act, without making satisfactory excuse for such refusal or neglect, he shall be fined in any sum not exceeding fifteen dollars, to be recovered by action. by any person suing for the same before a justice of the peace within the district wherein the person so appointed and refusing or neglecting may reside; and the recovery shall be paid without delay by the justice of the peace or constanble collecting the same to the treasurer of the county, taking his receipt therefor; and the county commisioners shall cause all fines which shall be paid into the county treasury under the provisions of this act to be expended on roads and bridges within the county. (L. '90, p. 601, §27; B. C., §3800; P. C., §7851.)

Viewers repealed, see note to §8.

See chapter XXI, generally for penal provisions.

42. Alteration of Road.

When a county road is injured or destroyed by the washing of any lake, river or creek, or by any washing or sliding of land occasioned by natural drainage, the supervisor of the road district in which such injury or loss of road has occurred, upon petition of any six freeholders of the district, shall call to their aid a competent surveyor, and proceed to examine such road; and if, upon such examination, the commissioners, or a majority of them, are satisfied that such road has been destroyed or so much injured that the public good requires an alteration of the same, they shall proceed to alter and lay out so much of the new road as may supply the several parts of the road thus destroyed or injured. (L. '90, p. 602, §29; B. C., §3801; P. C., §7853.)

43. Damages by Alteration.

If a person through whose lands any such alteration of the new road is laid out feels injured thereby, he shall make application to the overseer of his road district, at the time of making the alteration on his premises, to assess and determine, accord

ing to the provisions of the preceding section, the compensation to be made in money for the property sought to be appropriated, and how much less valuable, if any, the premises will be rendered by the alteration of the road; thereafter the road overseer shall make report to the county commissioners, who shall appoint three reviewers to inspect, assess and report the amount of damages sustained in the premises, and the clerk and commissioners of the proper county shall be governed in the reception and recording of such report in all respects as is prescribed in this act in cases of new roads. (L. '90, p. 602, §30; B. C., §3802; P. C., §7854.)

Railroad built on county road-§240a.

44. Roads Unopened.

Any county road, or part thereof, which has heretofore been or may hereafter be authorized, which remains unopened for public use for the space of five years after the order is made or authority granted for opening the same, shall be and the same is hereby vacated, and the authority for building the same barred by lapse of time. (L. '90, p. 603, §32; B. C., §3803; P. C., §7855.)

Vacation by petition-§§34-37.

45. Monuments.

The county commisioners shall cause monuments of stone to be placed at the beginning and terminus of all roads established under this act. (L. '90, p. 603, §34; B. C., §3804; P. C., $7856.)

Destruction of monuments-§253.

46. Order to Open Road, When to Be Executed.

No order of the county commissioners for the establishment of a county road, or for the alteration or vacation, in whole or in part, of a state or county road, or changing the width of a county road, shall be executed until twenty days have elapsed after the entry of such order in the record of the commissioners, and no order shall issue to open any county road until fifteen days after the same has been established, at which time the clerk

of the board may issue such order by direction of the commissioners, unless an appeal has been perfected. (L. '90, p. 603, §35; B. C., §3805; P. C., §7857.)

47. Certain Roads Declared Highways.

All public roads and highways in this state that have been used as such for a period of not less than seven years, and are now so used, where the same has been worked and kept up at the expense of the public, are hereby declared to be lawful roads and highways within the meaning and intent of the laws now existing governing public roads and highways in this state. (L. '90, p. 733, §1; B. C., §3846; P. C., §7860.)

48.

Defects in Laying Out Shall Not Defeat.

No informalities in the records in laying out, altering, establishing or vacating any public road or highway such as contemplated in section one [47] of this act now existing on file in the offices of the various county auditors of this state shall be construed to invalidate or vacate such public roads or highways. (L. '90, p. 733, §2; B. C., §3847; P. C., §7861.)

49. Roads May Be Temporarily Fenced.

Whenever any inhabitant of this state shall have his fences removed by floods or destroyed by fire, the county commissioners of the county in which he resides shall have power to grant a license or permit him or her to put a convenient gate or gates across any highway for a limited period of time, to be named in their order, in order to secure him from depredations upon his crops until he can repair his fences, and they shall grant such license or permit for no longer period than they may think absolutely necessary. (L. "71, p. 103, §1; B. C., §3538: P. C., $7926.)

50. Auditor May Issue Permit.

It shall be lawful for the auditor of any county to grant such permit in vacation, but the license shall not extend past the next meeting of the commissioners' court. (L. 71, p. 104, §2; B. C., $3539; P. C., $7927.)

51. Continuance After Expiration of Permit-Penalty.

Any person retaining a gate across the highway after his license shall expire shall be subject to a fine of one dollar for the first day and fifty cents for each subsequent day he shall retain the same, and it may be removed by the road supervisor as an obstruction, at the cost of the person placing or keeping it upon the highway. (L. "71, p. 104, §3; B. C., §3540; P. C., $7928.)

52. Passage-way Under Road.

The passage-ways for stock under any road shall be covered with suitable plank, not less than sixteen feet in length, and it shall be lawful for the fences of either side to converge to the bridge over said passage-way. The said passage-way shall be kept securely covered by the person who owns the adjoining lands, and shall be kept in repair by said owner. The approaches to the bridges over said passage-ways shall also be kept in good repair by said owner. (L. '86, p. 103, §2; B. C., $3797; P. C., §7919.)

53. Ditches Across Highway to Be Bridged.

Any person constructing a ditch, wherever the same be taken across any public highway, shall put a good substantial bridge, not less than sixteen feet in breadth, over such water course where it crosses said road, which said bridge shall be constructed within three days after any ditch has been constructed across any highway, and in case any bridge is not so constructed within the time named by the owners thereof, it shall be the duty of the supervisors of the road district wherein said crossing is situated to put a bridge over said ditch of the dimensions specified in this section, and call on the owner of the ditch to pay the expenses of constructing such bridges; and if the owner of such ditch refuse to pay the said expense, the said supervisor may go before any justice of the peace and make oath to the correctness of the bill, and that the owner of the ditch refuses payment thereof, and thereupon such justice of the peace shall issue a summons against such owner, requiring him to appear and answer to the complaint of such supervisor in an action for the