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  • From: Road's End Farm <organic87 AT frontiernet.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] The town and highway laws of the State of New York... - Google Books
  • Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2011 22:56:28 -0400


On Mar 30, 2011, at 6:09 PM, Mike Rock wrote:

http://books.google.com/books?id=wtMSAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA155&dq=new+york+state+fence+law&hl=en&ei=IqiTTfjcJJOz0QGH_uDMBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CFMQ6AEwBTgK#v=onepage&q=new%20york%20state%20fence%20law&f=false


Again, read and understand.  Pretty darned clear....page after page of it, still on the books.  YOU must fence or be liable.  Covers 'Division Fence', between adjoining properties.

Mike :(

It's the law.


On Mar 30, 2011, at 5:35 PM, Mike Rock wrote:


I will call the county agent in your county tomorrow or a Finger Lakes county and clarify.  Also, NEW YORK has some of the oldest fence viewing laws in the nation.  Upstate I was with a friend who was a fence viewer for the township.  His job was to  read the law to farmers and arbitrate disputes on boundaries.

Mike



Mike, I really don't want to get into a long argument about this (though I've got to admit, I seem to be doing so anyway.) The book quote above is discussing fence law from the 1880's. This tells me nothing whatsoever about what the law is in New York State in 2011 (though I can tell you that the town I'm in, at least, no longer has any such position as "fence viewer." Maybe some towns still do; though if so, I expect they have trouble filling the office unless it pays more than the "one dollar and fifty cents per diem" stated by the book you found above.)

New York State may indeed have current laws about fences. I doubt that they require a person with no livestock to pay for half of the neighbor's fence, which is what your original post said; I certainly might be wrong about that, but you haven't posted anything to show that it's current law. In any case, all I meant by my original post on this was that I think Wyatt needs to find out what the laws are, currently, in his specific location. As I'm not the one having the problem, and as Wyatt is not in New York State (I just took another look at his original post and see that he's in Ohio), I think you can save your time tomorrow and not bother to call New York county agents about this.


-- OK, I just got curious and went and googled New York and fence viewer and actually came up with some relatively current information, The information is in the form of a PDF from the State of Nebraska, which apparently does indeed currently have a law that fits your original description. It also includes the following paragraph:  

The issue of whether the requirement that a landowner without livestock be required to pay for part of a fence to keep the neighbor’s livestock off his land has been challenged in court. In New York and Vermont the State Supreme Courts ruled that such a requirement was unconstitutional as against the non- livestock owning landowner. Sweeney v. Murphy, 334 N.Y.S.2d 239, affirmed 294 N.E.2d 855 (1973); Choquette v. Perrault, 569 A.2d 455 (Vt. 1989). However, courts in Virginia and Iowa have upheld the legality of division fence statutes similar to Nebraska’s. Holly Hill Farm v. Rowe, 404 S.E.2d 48 (Va. 1991); Gravert v. Nebergall, 539 N.W.2d 194 (Iowa 1995). These cases, as a minimum suggest that the 50-50 split of LB667's division fence costs might be unconstitutional. 

(you can find the whole pdf here:)

So apparently Nebraska, Virginia, and Iowa do have, or had recently, laws such as you originally described; but New York and Vermont do not (though New York and Vermont may have other laws about fences). 

In any case, I stand by my original opinion, which was that Wyatt needs to find out what the law is where he is, as not every state in the USA has exactly the same laws.


-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale






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