proviso. building, maintaining, repairing or rebuilding the said bridge or bridges: Provided, That in case such bridge or bridges Proviso. shall be constructed over any navigable stream the same shall be so constructed as not to prevent or hinder the navigation of such stream by the usual crafts plying thereon: Provided further, That any such bridge built upon any stream Further shall be so built, constructed and maintained as not to interfere with the ordinary uses of said stream for driving logs or floating other materials or boats therein, and all such bridges so constructed shall be constructed and maintained so as to offer and afford reasonable, adequate and proper means for the passage of boats, vessels, sawlogs, floating timber and rafts through the same. CHAPTER XVII. TOLL ROADS. plank road. (251) § 4529. SECTION 1. Whenever any plank road Franchise for company may wish to use any part of a public highway or street, for the construction of their plank road over the same, such company shall apply to the supervisor and commissioner of highways of the township, or common council of any incorporated city or the president and trustees of any incorporated village, as the case may be, in which said highway or street is situated, for the purchase or release of the same, and it shall be the duty of such supervisor and commissioner or common council of any incorporated city, or the president and trustees of any incorporated village, as the case may be, to examine, at the expense of such company, so much of any such highway or street as may be wanted as aforesaid by such company, and if, in the opinion of a majority of such supervisor and commissioner, or common council of any incorporated city, or the president and trustees of any incorporated village, as the case may be, the public interest would not be prejudiced by granting the application of such company, said supervisor and commissioner, or a majority of them, or common council of any incorporated city, or the president and trustees of any incorporated village, as the case may be, may in writing, signed by them, grant to such company a right to enter upon, take and use such highway or street for the purpose of the construction, maintenance and use of a plank road thereon, under the provisions of the charter of such company and upon filing such grant in the office of the township clerk of such township, the said company may at once enter upon, take and use such highway or street for all the purposes aforesaid: Provided, That nothing herein contained Proviso. shall prejudice any legal claim for private damages of any person on the line of such public highway or street, by reason of the granting the said highway or street to the use of any Further proviso. Appraisal of damages. Proviso. Construction of road. Gravel road bed. Proviso. Proviso. such company: (252) § 4530. SEC. 2. Whenever any portion of any public highway shall be granted to the use of a plank road company, as aforesaid, any person who shall claim damages by reason of the granting of such highway to such use, as aforesaid, may have such damages appraised within the same time and in like manner as is provided by law for the appraisal of damages, on the altering and laying out of public highways: Provided, That the same notice shall be given to one of the board of directors, as is required to be given to the highway commissioner; and if any damages be awarded or appraised, the person in whose favor the same is awarded may bring an action of assumpsit for the recovery of the same against the company, and if in any such action the court shall be of the opinion that such person had any legal ground to claim damages against such company, such person shall be then entitled to a judgment for the amount of damages so awarded and legal costs of suit. (253) § 4531. SEC. 3. Every plank road made shall be laid out four rods wide, and shall be so constructed as to have at least eighteen feet width of good, smooth and permanent road, nine feet of which, at least, shall be made of plank not less than three inches thick, and of such grade as not to exceed an ascent or descent on any part of said road of more than one foot in ten feet, and which roadway shall be constructed so as to permit carriages and other vehicles conveniently and easily to pass each other, and also as to permit carriages readily and easily to pass on and off where such road is intersected by other roads; and no obstruction shall be suffered unnecessarily to remain upon such plank road at any such intersection. (254) § 4532. SEC. 4. All companies that have been or may be hereafter organized subject to the provisions of this act, instead of nine feet in width of plank road required by section three of this chapter may construct all or any portion of said road of gravel instead of plank and may substitute gravel instead of plank where plank is now used or of stone so broken as to subserve the purposes of said gravel: Provided, That said gravel portion of said road shall in all cases be not less than nine feet in width and the gravel of which the same is constructed be not less than nine inches in depth of gravel consisting of at least sixty-five per centum of pebbles and not more than thirty-five per centum of sand loam and bonding material, and shall in all cases be of such depth and quality as to make at all times a good, firm and hard road: Provided, That said company shall be subject to all the provisions and penalties in regard to the keeping said gravel road in repair as is provided for in an act relative to plank roads, approved March thirteen, eighteen hundred forty-eight, as amended. And also an act relative to appointment of toll road commissioners, and so forth, approved April twentytwo, eighteen hundred ninety-seven. Erin Twp. v. Plank Road Co., 115 / 465; People v. Plank Road Co., 125 / 367. widen road bed. (255) § 4533. SEC. 5. The commissioner of highways of Order to any township, the mayor of any incorporated city, or the president of any incorporated village, through any portion of which any plank road may be or shall have been constructed, whenever satisfied that the public good and safety, by reason of the amount of travel on such road, requires more than eighteen feet in width of good, smooth, and permanent road, or that that portion of any plank road which has been prepared and constructed for travel is of insufficient width, may, on at least fifteen days' written notice to the president or secretary of said company, apply to the circuit court of the county in which said township, city or village is located, for an order to widen said roadbed. The court, on such application, and on hearing the respective parties, and on reviewing the premises, if the said court shall deem such view necessary, shall make such order in the matter as to the said court may seem just and proper: Provided, That the court shall Proviso. not have power to extend the width of said roadbed beyond two and one-half rods. Such order shall be observed by the respective parties, and may be enforced by attachment or otherwise, as said court shall direct, and the decision of said court shall be final in the matter, and said court may direct the payment of costs in the premises as shall be deemed just and equitable. Shadock v. Plank Road Co., 79/7. (256) § 4534. SEC. 6. The qualified voters of any town ship may by a majority vote thereon, at any annual meeting, allow any plank or gravel road company to use the public highways of such township for the purpose of constructing and maintaining a plank or gravel road or roads thereon. Upon the written request of the president of such plank or gravel road company filed with the township clerk, accompanied by a fee of twenty dollars, it shall be the duty of the township clerk to give notice to the electors of the township that the question of allowing the plank or gravel road company making the request to use the highway or highways of the township designated in such written request, shall be submitted to a vote of the qualified electors of such township at the annual township meeting. Said notice shall contain à full and complete description by the metes and bounds of the highway in question, shall state the time of the annual meeting, and shall be posted in five or more conspicuous public places in the township for at least twenty days prior to the Electors may of highways. authorize use When clerk to election. give notice of request. Form of ballot. Signatures to annual meeting. The request required by this section to be filed with the township clerk shall be signed by twenty or more freeholders of the township, shall contain a description in full of the highway so desired to be used, and shall be filed with the township clerk at least forty days preceding the annual township meeting in any year. The vote in any township upon the question of allowing any plank or gravel road company to use any of the highways of such township for the purposes aforesaid shall be by ballot. The ballot shall contain the words, "Shall the right of way be granted? Yes [ ]," and "Shall the right of way be granted? No [ ].” Such ballots shall be printed and furnished by the township board. The voter shall designate his choice by making a cross in the square preceding the words "Yes" and "No"; and the ballots shall be received by the board of election inspectors, deposited in a separate ballot box, canvassed and the results declared in the same manner as is provided by statute in the case of the election of township officers: Provided, That the right to construct such plank or gravel road shall not be deemed to have been granted unless the affirmative vote shall be equal to a majority of all the votes cast at such annual township meeting. Where the right of way is not granted, the same proposition shall not be again submitted within two years. Proviso. Liability for personal damages. Company to keep road in condition. . (257) § 4535. § 4535. SEC. 7. Any such corporation shall be liable for all damages that may be sustained by any person or persons, to themselves or property, in consequence of neglect or omission to keep such road in reasonable repair and in condition reasonably safe and fit for public travel. (258) § 4536. SEC. 8. In all cases where any plank road company has or may at any time hereafter, become authorized or permitted to enter upon, take or use any public highway or street, on the route of its plank road, and to construct its plank road thereon, or to use and maintain the same for a plank road, and to actually take possession of said road or street, by laying down sections or portions of plank, and delivering plank upon such road or street, such company shall, at all times, so far as the formation of the soil and season of the year will permit, keep in good order and condition so much of said road as it shall not have planked, until it shall have planked the same; and if any company shall neglect to keep such highway or street in such order and condition, it shall be deemed to have abandoned and forfeited the right to enter upon, take or use such public highway or street, as to so much as shall not be planked. FORFEITURE OF FRANCHISE: Forfeiture of franchise by plank road company after six years' negligence.-Coon v. Plymouth Plank Road Co., 32/249. Upon the forfeiture of its charter and the abandonment of a plank road by the company maintaining it the land becomes a public highway and does not revert to the abutting owner.-Highway Commissioners v. Cobb, 104 / 395. LIABILITY: The fact that a bridge constituting a part of a plank road company's road is destroyed without its negligence does not relieve it from the duty to rebuild.-People v. Plainfield Gravel Road Co., 105 / 9. A plank road company extending its roads by amendment of its charter is under the same Rability to keep the part added by the amendment in repair as that originally included. Wolcott v. Gravel Road Co., Id. The defendant in accepting its franchise assumed the duty of keeping its way in repair, and its charter, when made was subject to all future reasonable and proper police regulations enacted for the protection of the lives and health of the people and the prevention of injury thereto.-Carver v. Plank Road Co., 69/616. planking. gravel. Duty of prose. cuting attorney. (259) § 4537. SEC. 9. Every plank road company and Manner of the owners of any such plank road company, by purchase or otherwise, shall cause to be laid down and kept closely together and in an even manner so that the surface shall be uniform, the plank upon its road; or, if said company or Placing of the owners shall have built any portion of their road or may build any portion of the same of gravel or stone so broken as to serve the purpose of gravel, they shall cause the said gravel or broken stone of the proper quality and quantity to be placed upon the road and kept in a uniform manner, of the width and depth required by law; and, in case of default, they shall forfeit the right to receive any toll upon said road. And the prosecuting attorney of the county, on complaint of the highway commissioner of any township in which any portion of the road defectively constructed or out of repair lies, may institute a suit in the circuit court for the same county, in chancery, to have such default judicially ascertained and declared; but, if such prosecuting attorney is interested in Commissioner said suit or in said plank road company, or shall refuse or attorney. neglect to commence said suit, then the highway commissioner of such township, by consent of the township board of such township, may employ an attorney, at the expense of such township, to commence said suit, and the same may be prosecuted in the same manner as if it had been commenced by said prosecuting attorney. The said circuit court, in of court. chancery, for the respective counties, shall have full jurisdiction of all cases arising under this act to hear, try and determine the same upon bill or petition filed according to the usual course and practice of these courts, and may grant injunctions in all such cases restraining the company or the persons owning or operating said road from collecting toll from persons who travel over the same, and may fully deter mine said cause. REPAIR OF ROAD: Under this section a company cannot abandon a bridge constituting a part of its road and thereby escape liability to keep the same in repair. People v. Plainfield Gravel Road Co., 105 / 9. Proceedings to enjoin road from taking toll for neglect to keep road in repair. People v. Plank Road Co., 67/5. Where the stockholders of a turnpike company by resolution abandon a portion of its road which is out of order, an action will immediately lie to forfeit its charter for failure to keep the same in repair.-People v. Plainfield Gravel Road Co., 105/9. may employ Jurisdiction (260) § 4538. SEC. 10. Any board of supervisors of any Condemna county in the state of Michigan, in which any toll or plank tion of rights. roads are maintained under the laws of the state are hereby authorized by proper resolution to institute proceedings for the condemnation of all the rights of such toll and plank road companies in any highway in such county. (261) § 4539. SEC. 11. Whenever the board of super visors of any county shall deem it necessary for the use and benefit of the public to condemn the rights of any toll or to describe condemned Supervisors road. |