## Facts

- Oris Sain built and graveled a road on his property leading about six-tenths of a mile to the Sain homeplace; for a substantial distance it ran along the boundary with J.G. and Maurine Rogers’s adjoining land.
- The road remained open and unobstructed for more than 40 years and was commonly known as the “Oris Sain Road” (also identified as a county road).
- The United States Post Office used the road for mail delivery starting in 1960, treating it as a public road.
- The county maintained and improved the road over many years, including grading and gravel work.
- Oris Sain, on multiple occasions, stated openly that the road was a public road.
- After Oris Sain’s death, his heirs inherited the property and attempted to purchase an adjacent tract from the Rogerses; when negotiations failed and the Rogerses leased the tract for farming, the heirs told the Rogerses and their tenant the road was closed to them.
- The trial court found the Rogerses’ own use of the road was occasional and insufficient to establish a private prescriptive easement.

## Issues

1. Whether the roadway became a public road through implied dedication by the landowner and acceptance by the public or governmental authorities.
2. If the road is public, whether abutting landowners have a right to open and free ingress and egress over the road even though the roadbed lies on the defendants’ property.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment declaring the road a public road.
- The court held the evidence supported implied dedication by the owner and acceptance through long public use, governmental maintenance, and official mail-route use.
- The court affirmed that the plaintiffs, as abutting landowners, were entitled to open and free ingress and egress over the road.
- The finding that plaintiffs did not prove a private prescriptive easement did not defeat their claim once the road was determined to be public.

## Legal Principles

- A roadway may become public by implied (common-law) dedication when the owner’s conduct shows an intent to dedicate the way to public use and there is acceptance by the public or competent public authority.
- Longstanding openness of a road, the owner’s statements treating it as public, inclusion in official uses such as mail delivery, and sustained county maintenance are probative of intent to dedicate and public acceptance.
- Abutting landowners possess a protectable right of reasonable access (ingress and egress) to a public road, and private parties may not obstruct that access by closing the public way.
- Appellate review gives substantial deference to supported trial-court findings on fact-intensive questions concerning road status and historical use.

## Conclusion

The court upheld a declaration that the Oris Sain Road became a public road through implied dedication and acceptance shown by decades of open use, county maintenance, and mail delivery, and it confirmed that abutting owners could enforce their right of ingress and egress over the public road.


Rogers v. Sain, 679 S.W.2d 450 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1984)