ROW Patent Reservation
One of the fiber projects I??m working on has a portion of a road that falls in a section that was patented to a native corporation and I was having trouble locating where the ROW was created, no supporting documentation of a dedication or acceptance. Then I found it, buried as a reservation in the patent, only providing a rough location and width, nothing more. It??s maintained by the local municipality, to the extent they grade and plow it. Our ROW people are nervous as back in the 90s, we were unable to obtain permission to use it from the native corporation without giving them a plethora of freebies. So the question is, does a patent reservation carry the same weight as a dedication and acceptance? I basically told them while I??m not an attorney, if the local government is maintaining it, that is in effect an acceptance and they are the ones who issued the permit, so if the natives get restless, they can take it up with them.
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