All public highways laid out in this state shall be sixty feet in width unless otherwise
ordered by the board of county commissioners.
History: Laws 1905, ch. 124, § 18; Code 1915, § 2670; C.S. 1929, § 64-719; 1941
Comp., § 58-402; 1953 Comp., § 55-4-2.
ANNOTATIONS
Road established by use, not by statutory authority. — This section does not apply
to a road that was a public thoroughfare long before it was officially established as a
state road. State of N.M. ex. rel King v. UU Bar Ranch Ltd. P'ship Ltd., 2009-NMSC-
010, 145 N.M. 769, 205 P.3d 816, aff’g in part, 2005-NMCA-079, 137 N.M. 719, 114
P.3d 399.
Highway established via prescriptive use. — The width requirement of this section
should not be applied where the highway was established by means of prescriptive use.
State ex rel. Baxter v. Egolf, 1988-NMCA-047, 107 N.M. 315, 757 P.2d 371.
Roads established by use are not "laid out" as required by this section. The
applicability of this section is dependent upon the laying out of a road by a
governmental entity authorized to do so. Quintana v. Knowles, 1993-NMCA-022, 115
N.M. 360, 851 P.2d 482, cert. denied, 115 N.M. 359, 851 P.2d 481.
Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — Width and boundaries of public highway
acquired by prescription or adverse user, 76 A.L.R.2d 535.
Notes of Decisions
State Ex Rel. King v. UU Bar Ranch Ltd. P'ship, 205 P.3d 816 (N.M. 2009).
· cites it 10× “It bases this argument on a misreading of NMSA 1978, § 67-5-2 (1903). Because that statute does not apply to the road in question, we affirm the district court’s determination on remand that the Road is 24 feet wide.”
Quintana v. Knowles, 851 P.2d 482 (N.M. Ct. App. 1993).
· cites it 38× “Section 932 ) and (2) extending the width of the road to sixty feet pursuant to NMSA 1978, Section 67-5-2 without compensating them for the extension.”
Dethlefsen v. Weddle, 2012 NMCA 77 (N.M. Ct. App. 2012).
· cites it 4× “And despite the statutory mandate requiring public highways to be “sixty feet in width,” NMSA 1978, § 67-5-2 (1905), public highways created by prescription are often recognized as being far narrower.”
Herbertson v. Iliff, 775 P.2d 754 (N.M. Ct. App. 1989).
· cites it 2× “Herbertson argues that, as a matter of law, county road 89 is sixty feet wide, NMSA 1978, Section 67-5-2 (Orig.Pamp.), and that the width of a highway should be measured from the center of the existing paved surface.”
State Ex Rel. Baxter v. Egolf, 757 P.2d 371 (N.M. Ct. App. 1988).
· cites it 2× “This argument was based on NMSA 1978, Section 67-5-2, which stated that all public highways laid out in this state shall be 60 feet in width.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the
Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and
treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.