TITLE 1. Forfeiture construction, and to exhibit annually to the comptroller, an account of the sums arising from the tolls, of the disbursements and of the dividends, actually made within the year. 1 R. L., 228, § 9 to 13. S 15. Every company so incorporated shall cease to be a of corporate body corporate, powers. Dissolution. [581] Road, how laid out. Duty of commissioners. 1. If within two years from their incorporation, they shall not have commenced the construction of the road described in the act of incorporation: and, 2. If within five years from such incorporation, such road shall not be completed according to the provisions of this Title, and of the act of incorporation. S16. Every such corporation may be dissolved by the legislature, when by the income arising from tolls, it shall have been compensated for all monies expended in purchasing, making, repairing and taking care of its road, and have received in addition thereto, an average annual interest at the rate of ten per cent; and on such dissolution, all the rights and property of such corporation, shall vest in the people of this state. 1 R. L., 228, § 14. ARTICLE SECOND. OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE ROAD, AND OF THE APPRAISEMENT OF SEC. 17. The road to be laid out by commissioners. 18. Duty of commissioners. 19. Commissioners to be paid 3 dollars per day. 20. How roads shall be constructed. 21. Mile stones to be erected. 22. Guide posts to be erected. 23. No director to be concerned in contract for making road. 24. Contractors not to sub-contract. 25. After road laid out, president, &c. may agree with owner of land for purchase, &c. 26. How value of land ascertained, where owner and president, &c. cannot agree. 29. Not to take possession of public highway, unless paid for as private property. $ 17. The road directed to be made by each company so incorporated, shall be laid out by three, or any two of three, commissioners to be appointed by the governor; such commissioners must not be interested in any turnpike road, nor live in a county through which the road directed shall pass. S 18. It shall be the duty of such commissioners, 1. To lay out the road directed, without favor or partiality, according to their best judgment and understanding, in such manner as shall best promote the objects of the corporation, and the interests of the public: 2. To cause to be made an accurate map of their survey of such road, in every county through which it shall pass, desig nating therein the several particular points near or through which it passes, and to deposit and file such map in the office of the clerk of the county. 1 R. L., 228, § 3; 8 W., 555. ART. 2 $ 19. Each commissioner, for each day he shall be neces- Pay. sarily employed in the performance of such duty, shall receive the sum of three dollars, to be paid, together with the expenses of surveys and maps, by the corporation to which the road shall belong. constructed $20. Such road shall be constructed by the president and Road, how directors of such corporation, in the manner following: 1. It shall be laid out not less than four rods wide, and twenty-two feet of such width shall be bedded with stone, gravel, sound wood, or other hard substance, well compacted, and of sufficient depth to secure a good and solid foundation: 2. It shall be faced with gravel or broken stone, of a depth not less than nine inches, in such manner as to secure a firm and even surface, rising in the middle by a gradual arch: 3. The ditches on each side thereof shall, when practicable, be so made, as to render easy the passing of sleighs therein, and shall be so formed as to permit carriages conveniently to pass on and off the turnpike, where it shall be intersected by other roads: 4. It shall be made of such width as may be practicable, not less than twenty-two feet in any one place; and without a ditch on the lower side in each place where, on account of the steepness of side-hills or rocks, it cannot, in the opinion of the commissioners, be made of the full width above required: 5. The lower side, where it shall not be of full width, shall be furnished with a strong and sufficient fender or railing, of the height of at least four feet above the surface of the road along which such fender shall be constructed. 1 R. L., 228, § 5; 21 B., 79. [582] Mile stones, $21. A mile stone or post shall be erected and maintained by the corporation on each mile of the road, on which shall &c. be fairly and legibly marked or inscribed, the distance of such stone or post from the place of the commencement of the road; and when such road shall commence at the end of any other road, having mile stones or posts, on which the distance from any city or town is marked, a continuation of that distance shall in like manner be inscribed. 1 R. L., 228, § 8. $ 22. A guide post shall also be erected at the intersection Guide-posts of every public road, leading into or from the turnpike, on which shall be inscribed the name of the place to which such intersecting road leads, in the direction to which the name on the guide post shall point. $23. No director of the corporation to which it shall belong, Prohibishall be concerned directly or indirectly in any contract for tion. TITLE 1. Prohibi tion. Land may be agreed for. If no agreement so damages to the making or working of the road, or any part thereof, during the time he shall be a director. 1 R. L., 228, § 15; 17 B., 404. S 24. No contractor for the making of such road, or any part thereof, shall make a new contract for the performance of his work, or any part thereof, other than by hiring hands, teams, carriages or utensils, to be superintended and paid by himself, unless such new contract and its terms be laid before the board of directors, and be approved by them. $25. After the road shall have been laid out by the commissioners, the president and directors of the company to which it shall belong, may agree with the owners of the land through which it shall pass, for the purchase of so much thereof as shall be necessary for the making of the road, and the accommodation of gates, toll-houses, and other works thereto belonging. 1 R. L., 228, § 3. $ 26. In every case where the owner of land so required, made, how shall be absent from the county, or shall not from any cause be assessed. be capable in law so to agree, or shall refuse to agree, the value of such land, and the damages to the owners, shall be ascertained, in the manner following: 1. One of the judges not interested in the road, of the court of common pleas of the county in which the land shall be situated, upon application of the president and directors, shall, by an instrument in writing, signed by him, appoint three freeholders of the county, not inhabitants of any town through which the road shall pass, and not interested in the road or lands to be appraised, as appraisers: 2. The president and directors shall give notice to the appraisers of their appointment, and the appraisers, or any two of them, shall thereupon name a day for meeting on the land, and performing the duties required of them; which day shall not be more than twenty, nor less than ten days from such notice of their appointment: [583] 3. The president and directors shall give at least ten days' notice to the owners of the land required, of the time and place of meeting, so appointed by the appraisers; but if any such owner be absent, or subject to any legal disability to contract, a copy of such notice may be left at the dwellinghouse of such owner, or at some public place on the lands to be appraised: 4. Each appraiser, before he shall proceed to execute his trust, shall take and subscribe in writing, before a justice of the peace in the county, the oath or affirmation prescribed in the constitution of this state: 5. The appraisers shall then proceed to view the premises, and without favor or partiality, to assess the damages sustained by the respective owners of the lands deemed necessary by the president and directors, to be taken and appropriated for the road: 6. They shall make an inquisition, under their hands and seals, or the hands and seals of any two of them, describing such land, and stating the amount of damages, if any, which each owner of lands or improvements so taken and appropriated, has sustained, or will sustain, in consequence thereof: 7. The inquisition shall be acknowledged by the appraisers signing it, before one of the judges of the county in which the lands are situated, and so acknowledged, shall be filed by them, together with their oath or affirmation of office, in the clerk's office of such county, within thirty days after it shall have been made, to be by such clerk recorded in a book for recording deeds, at the expense of the corporation. 1 R. L., 228, § 3; 3 W., 42; 3 J. Ca., 107. S 27. The president and directors, upon payment of the several sums so assessed as damages, in the inquisition so made, or upon making a legal tender thereof, when the monies shall be refused, shall be entitled to enter on the lands described in the inquisition, and shall have and hold the same, to them, their successors and assigns forever. 8 W., 555; 12 W., 371. S28. If on any parcel of the lands so described, there shall b be no person then living, authorised to receive the damages assessed for such parcel, and such damages shall not have been lawfully demanded, within ten days after the filing of such inquisition, the president and directors may enter thereon, without payment or tender of such damages; but subject to such payment, whenever the same shall be thereafter lawfully required. $29. Such president and directors shall not enter on and I. take possession of any public highway, until it shall have been appraised and paid for, in the same manner as private property, and the amount appraised for each highway so taken, shall be paid to the commissioners of highways in the town to which it shall belong, to be by them applied in improving the roads in such town. 25 W., 367. Ib. Old $ 30. Whenever an appraisement shall be made of the lands [584] on any old road, used as such by prescription, on which a road. turnpike shall be laid out, the appraisers shall set down the value of the soil and of the improvements, and the monies paid by any town for making such improvements, in separate sums; and the sum for which the soil is appraised shall be paid to the owners thereof, and the value of the improvements, and the sums paid therefor, by any town, shall be paid to the commissioners of highways of the town in which such old road shall be situate. 1 R. L., 228, § 3. TITLE 1. Pay of S31. The president and directors procuring the appointjudge and ment, shall pay to the judge for appointing appraisers, one dollar, and to each appraiser, two dollars for every day he shall be necessarily employed in his duties as such. appraisers. Inspectors to be appointed. Gates to be erected. Tollgatherers. Their pow ers. When tolls not to be collected. [585] 1 R. L., 228, § 4. ARTICLE THIRD. OF TOLLS, AND THEIR COLLECTION. SEO. 32. When road complete, governor to appoint persons to inspect it. 34. Toll-gatherers to be appointed. 35. Persons may be prevented from passing gate until toll paid. 36. When toll not to be exacted. 37. Tolls upon particular carriages. 38. Rates of toll to be kept over gate. S32. As soon as the president and directors of any company incorporated under this Title, shall have completed their road, or any ten miles thereof, they shall give notice thereof to the governor, who shall thereupon appoint three discreet freeholders, not interested in any turnpike, to view the road as described in the notice, and to report to him, in writing, whether the same is completed in a workmanlike manner, according to the requisitions of this Title, and of the act of incorporation. $33. If such report shall be in the affirmative, it shall be the duty of the governor, by license under his hand, and the privy seal of the state, to permit the president and directors, to erect so many gates and turnpikes on the road reported, as shall be sufficient for the collection thereon, of the tolls authorised by law. 1 R. L., 228, § 6; 18 J. R., 397. $ 34. The president and directors shall then appoint tollgatherers, to collect, at each gate so erected, from the persons using the road, such toll as shall be authorised in their act of incorporation. 21 B., 321. $ 35. Each toll-gatherer may detain and prevent from passing through his gate, the persons riding, leading, or driving animals or carriages subject to toll, until they shall have paid respectively the tolls authorised by law. 1 R. L., 228, § 7; 21 B., 212. $36. No tolls shall be collected at any gate of any company incorporated under this Title in either of the following cases: 1. From any person passing to or from public worship, or a funeral; to or from a grist-mill for the grinding of grain for family use; or to or from the blacksmith's shop to which he usually resorts for work there to be done : 2. From any person going for a physician or midwife, or returning from such errand; going to or returning from court |