
    Carroll,
    June, 1894.
    Drew & a. v. Cotton & a.
    
    A vote of a town to discontinue a highway located within the town is valid, though it forms part of a continuous thoroughfare into other towns.
    Petition, against the county commissioners and the town of Eaton, for a writ of mandamus to compel the commissioners to order the town to repair a highway. Facts found by the court. The highway was laid out by the selectmen in 1850, and forms a part of a highway leading easterly into the state of Maine and westerly across the town into the town of Madison. In March, 1891, the defendant town voted to discontinue the highway in question. In August, 1893, the plaintiffs, who are citizens of Eaton, in compliance with the provisions of Laws of 1893, c. 59, filed a complaint with the commissioners alleging that the highway was out of repair and that the town refused to repair it. These allegations were found to be true, and the commissioners ordered the town to make the necessary repairs, unless it should be held that the highway was discontinued.
    
      Josiah U. Hobbs, for the plaintiffs.
    
      John B. Nash, for the defendants.
   Per Curiam.

The statute does not expressly declare that a town cannot discontinue a highway extending beyond its limits. It was not necessary to enact that it cannot discontinue a highway in another town. The provision relating to highways in more than one town is affirmative. “ If they extend beyond the limits of the town they may be discontinued upon petition to the supreme court.” The power of selectmen to lay out a highway is confined to their town. Gr. L., c. 67, s..l. Highways thus laid out are “highways in a town,” within the meaning of the statute, which does not expressly or inferentially declare them to be parts of highways in more than one town, because they connect with roads leading into other towns and states. The highway in question, having been laid out by the selectmen, and being wholly within the town, was legally discontinued by the vote of the town.

Petition dismissed.

Wallace, J., did not sit: the others concurred. 
      
       Chief Justice Doe died March 9,1896. In this and all the following cases where the opinion is Per Curiam, with the exception of those of December term, 1895, the judgment was announced by him. In all of them he stated orally, or read from brief and informal-notes, the reasons of the judgment. He wrote no opinion in any of them. In some cases he left nothing in writing except a memorandum of the order for judgment, or of the conclusions of the court upon the questions submitted. The opinions are prepared by R. E. Walker, Esquire, whose purpose is to preserve as nearly as may be the language of such of Judge Doe’s notes as may be found, and in their absence to state as briefly as possible in his own language the grounds of the decision. The opinions thus prepared are in every instance examined and approved by one or more of the surviving justices.
     