Rendler v. Lincoln County

Plaintiffs, landowners in Lincoln County, filed suit against the county for a declaration that an unimproved county road, known as "804," had been vacated or abandoned. The circuit court allowed The Committee to Save Yachats 804 Trail, Inc. ("the committee"), to intervene and to file a counterclaim for a declaratory judgment that County Road 804 continues to exist, that it is a "public easement by prescription," and that "the public has a prescriptive easement over any part of the pedestrian right of way not falling within the confines of County Road 804 and/or that the same has been impliedly dedicated to the public by plaintiffs and their predecessors in title." Intervenor also asked for injunctive and other relief. In an extensive opinion reviewing the evidence, the circuit court found that County Road 804 had been legally established in 1890, that it was not vacated by the location of another county road in 1916 or of a highway in the 1930s, and that the public by long and adverse use had acquired prescriptive rights in a pedestrian right of way that included portions of the original "804" and other segments on property outside the original "804," as described in detail in the courts judgment.