Opinion
Decided August, 1878.
A diminution of the ability of a town to build and maintain a highway may be a sufficient change of circumstances to authorize the discontinuance of the highway.
PETITION, for the discontinuance of a highway that had not been constructed. The court reserved the question whether an increase of the town's indebtedness and a decrease of its ability to build and maintain the highway could be a cause of discontinuance.
Copeland, for the plaintiff.
F. Hobbs and Fox, for the defendants.
As the ability of the town to build and maintain the highway was a material part of the question of laying out (Dudley v. Cilley, 5 N.H. 558, 560, 561; Winship v. Enfield, 42 N.H. 197, 204, 205), a diminution of that ability is a change of circumstances that may be a sufficient reason for discontinuance. It is possible that after a road is laid out, and before it is built, the resources of the town may be so reduced that the expense of the road would be unreasonably burdensome.
Case discharged.
STANLEY, J., did not sit.