OF THE HIGHWAY LAWS OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. WITH AN APPENDIX OF FORMS. BY ROBLEY D. COOK, COUNSELLOR-AT-LAW, ALBANY: LAW PUBLISHER, 1870. Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year eighteen hundred and seventy, In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. PREFACE. This work is not intended as an elaborate treatise on the Law of Highways, but simply as a Manual for the use of the legal profession, and of those officers to whom are intrusted the care and management of the highways of the State. It has been the aim of the author to confine himself exclusively to the subject of Public Highways and Private Roads. The various kinds of ways- such as rivers, canals, railways, etc.,-though properly included under the generic term Highway, have been referred to only where their connection with the principal subject has rendered it necessary. So much of the common law as remains in force has been given as succinctly as possible. The statute law has been fully and literally set forth, with such explanations and constructions as the courts of this State have furnished, and the decisions of the courts of other States and of the English courts have been cited wherever they could serve to illustrate our law. In the citation of opinions the leading cases have been chosen, and what is understood to be the established law has been stated as briefly as was consistent with perspicuity. It has been the author's aim to lay down no principles and to make no statements not fully sustained by the statutes or the decisions. That the work is perfect is not claimed; but it is hoped that it will be found reliable and sufficiently exhaustive to answer the requirements of the profession and of the highway officers. The author would return his thanks to Messrs. G. A. Mosher and C. W. Perkins, of the Troy bar, for their valuable assistance in the preparation of the work, and to Mr. Matthew Walsh for his labors in verifying the citation of authorities. TROY, September, 1870. |