🚀 go-pugleaf

Stay off his land. You are trespassing. 

lewis@morgan.ucs.mun.ca (Robert M. Lewis) hypothesizes:

>> A trail which I use ocassionally (a dozen times a year maybe) one day
>> last week had a fence across it.  The trail (now less used than it once
>> was) was on public park land.  
>> 
>> I called the park office and was told that the land which part of the 
>> trail ran across had been exchanged with the neigbouring farmer for some
>> other land (actually to build a highway right through the park but that
>> is another crime story).  I argued that the trail constituted
>> a public right-of-way.  Their opinion was that as the land was now
>> private and, combined with the fact that they had not been maintaining
>> the trail, there was no public right-of-way.
>> 
>> From what I know of the farmer he is a reasonable person.  The nature of
>> the trail means that there would be no motorized of even bicycle use of
>> it.  He has done nothing with the land yet (except fence it) but I
>> imagine he will start to put crops in it at some point.  While one could
>> skirt any area cultivation to get to the rest of the trail (still on
>> public land) one does need to go on his land to get to the rest of the
>> trail.
>> 
>> I want to keep using the trail. While I guess I'll just go over the 
>> fence for the time being but I'd like to know exactly what my rights
>> are. Should I inform the farmer of the existance of what I perceive as a
>> right of way or just use it?  Am I correct in assuming that a public
>> right-of-way exists?
>> 
>> Robert M. Lewis
>> Curiouser and curiouser!