of five years ceases to be a highway for any purpose Abandonwhatever.

SEC. 2621. The Clerk of the Board of Supervisors must keep a book in which must be recorded separately all proceedings of the Board relative to each road district, including orders laying out, altering, and opening roads; and in a separate book a description of each road district, its Overseers, its roads, highways, contracts, and all other matters pertaining thereto.

ment of highways.

Duties of tive to road

Clerk rela

matters.

ARTICLE II.

RULES AND RESTRICTIONS RESPECTING THE USE OF HIGHWAYS.

SECTION 2631. The public easement.

2632. Adjoining owner may construct sidewalk.

2633. May plant trees.

2634. Gas, water, and railroad corporations may lay down

conductors and track.

2635. Other corporations may acquire right of way.

easement.

SEC. 2631. By taking or accepting land for a highway The public the public acquires only the right of way and the incidents necessary to enjoying and maintaining it, subject to the regulations in this and the Civil Code provided. All trees within the highway, except only such as are requisite to make or repair the road or bridges on the 'same land, are for the use of the owner or occupant of the land.

owner may construct sidewalk.

SEC. 2632. Any owner or occupant of land may con- Adjoining struct a sidewalk on the highway along the line of his land, subject, however, to the authority conferred by law on the Board of Supervisors and the Overseers of Highways; and any person using such sidewalk with horse or team without permission of the owner is liable to such owner or occupant in the sum of five dollars for each trespass and for all damages suffered thereby.

trees.

SEC. 2633. Any owner or occupant of land adjoining a May plant highway not less than three rods wide may plant trees on the side contiguous to his land. They must be set in

Gas, water,

and

railroad

corpora

tions may lay down

regular rows, at a distance of at least six feet from each other and not more than six feet from the boundary of the highway. If the highway is more than six rods wide the row must not be less than six nor more than twelve feet from the boundary of the highway. Whoever injures any of them is liable to the owner or to the occupant for the damage which is thereby sustained, and is guilty of a misdemeanor.

SEC. 2634. Every gas, water, or railroad corporation has power to lay conductors and tracks through the public ways and squares in any city, village, or town, when it conductors is established, with the consent of the municipal authorities thereof, and under such reasonable regulations as the authorities and the law prescribe.

and track.

SEC. 2635. The cases and manner in which railroad, plank road, turnpike, and common wagon road corporations may acquire a right of way upon the public highways are provided for in the subsequent Chapters of this Code, in Title VII, Part III of the Code of Civil Procedure, and under Title "Corporations" of the Civil Code.

Counties

classified

ARTICLE III.

POWERS AND DUTIES OF BOARDS OF SUPERVISORS AND HIGHWAY

OFFICERS OVER HIGHWAYS.

SECTION 2645. Counties classified for highway purposes.

2646. Commissioners of Highways.

2647. Duties of Commissioners of Highways and Boards of

Supervisors.

2648. Road Districts, how defined and described.

2649. Overseers notified to give bond, take oath, etc.

2650. Duties of Road Overseer.

2651. Commissioner of Highways, duties.

2652. Compensation of Commissioner of Highways.

2653. General Road Fund for general road purposes.

SEC. 2645. For highway purposes the counties of this

for highway State are divided into two classes:

purposes.

1. Counties having a population of ten thousand inhabitants or over are of the first class;

2. Counties having a population of less than ten Same. thousand are counties of the second class.

NOTE.-Under the Federal census of 1870 the following counties are of the first class: Alameda, Butte, El Dorado, Los Angeles, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Joaquin, Santa Clara, Solano, Sonoma, Yuba; all the others are of the second class. When another State or Federal census is taken, a new classification will, by operation of this section, take place. San Francisco is exempt from the provisions of this Title, having a city and county government peculiar to it.

SEC. 2646. For all counties of the first class there must be elected at the general election every two years some elector of the county to act as Commissioner of Highways, who holds his office for two years, commencing and ending at the time and in like manner as other ministerial county officers. He must give an official bond in the sum of twenty thousand dollars, executed as other official bonds are executed, and take the usual oath of office. The Board of Supervisors must order the election, fill vacancies, and exercise a supervisory control over the Commissioners of Highways.

SEC. 2647. In the counties of the first class the Commissioners of Highways, subject to rejection or modification and approval of the Board of Supervisors, and in counties of the second class the Board of Supervisors, by proper ordinances, must:

1. Divide the county into a suitable and convenient number of road districts, and appoint therefor annually, or whenever vacancies occur, Overseers, with power to remove them at pleasure;

2. Cause to be surveyed, viewed, laid out, recorded, opened, and worked, such highways as are necessary for public convenience, as in this Chapter provided;

3. Cause to be recorded as highways such roads as have become such by usage or abandonment to the public;

4. Abolish or abandon such as are unnecessary;

Commissioners of

Highways.

Duties of
Commis-

sioners of Highways and Board visors.

of Super

Same.

Road Districts, how

described.

5. To contract, agree for, purchase, or otherwise acquire the right of way over private property for the use of public highways; and for that purpose institute, or require the District Attorney to institute proceedings under Title VII, Part III of the Code of Civil Procedure, and to pay therefor from the District Road Fund of the particular district;

6. Let out by contract the improvement of highways and the construction and repair of bridges or other adjuncts to highways, when the amount of work to be done by contract exceeds one hundred dollars;

7. Levy a property tax not exceeding thirty cents on each one hundred dollars of taxable property each year, to be assessed and collected at the same time and manner and by the same officers as other taxes are assessed and collected, for the use of the road districts respectively from which the same is collected;

8. Direct the number of days work which each male inhabitant over the age of twenty-one and under fifty. years of age must perform annually in each road district. under order of the Overseer thereof;

Stats. 1855, p. 192, Secs. 6, 3.

9. Order and direct Overseers specially in regard to work to be done on particular roads in their districts;

10. Cause to be erected and maintained on the highways they may designate milestones or posts and guideposts properly inscribed;

11. Cause the road tax collected each year to be apportioned to the road districts entitled thereto, and kept by the Treasurer in separate Funds;

12. Audit and draw warrants on the Funds of the respective road districts when required to pay for right of way or work or improvements thereon.

[New section.]

SEC. 2648. The road districts must be carefully and defined and distinctly defined and described, and designated by the municipal towns or townships; until such division is made the road districts of the various counties must continue as they are at present defined. Road districts may

be altered, changed, created, or modified by the Commissioner of Highways and the Board of Supervisors as occasion requires. When such acts are done by the Commissioner they are subject to rejection, modification, and approval by the Board.

SEC. 2649.

give bond,

take oath,

etc.

Overseers of road districts receive notice of Overseers notified to their appointment from the Commissioner of Highways or the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors, and within ten days thereafter must give the official bond required by the Board of Supervisors in the order of appointment or confirmation, and take the usual oath of office. The notice and certificate that the bond has been filed, and the oath taken and indorsed thereon, or a certified copy thereof, constitutes a commission, and authorizes the person named in and holding the same to discharge the duties of Overseer until superseded.

Stats. 1855, p. 192, Sec. 3.

Road

SEC. 2650. Road Overseers, under the direction and Duties of supervision and pursuant to orders of the Commissioner Overseer. of Highways or the Board of Supervisors appointing them, must:

1. Take charge of the public highways within their respective districts;

2. Keep them clear from obstructions and in good repair;

3. Cause banks to be graded, bridges and causeways to be made where necessary, to keep the same in good repair, and renew them when destroyed;

4. Give three days notice to the inhabitants of his road district liable to do work on roads when, where, and under whose direction to work, and superintend the same;

5. Collect from each inhabitant notified to work and who fails to work or prefers to pay it the commutation fee, or the lieu road poll tax when levied;

6. Make semi-annual reports of all labor performed in his district, and how all road poll tax and commutation moneys were expended, to the Commissioner of Highways or Board of Supervisors, under oath;