Weigel v. Cooper

In Weigel v. Cooper, 245 Ark. 912, 436 S.W.2d 85 (1969), the Arkansas Supreme Court, quoting the decision of the Illinois Supreme Court in Mudge v. Wagoner, 320 Ill. 357, 151 N.E. 276, 279 (1926), stated: "Nor is the fact, if it be a fact, that appellee in 1891 changed this road so that it extended directly north and south on the east side of his house rather than through his orchard sufficient to defeat the right of the public in the road for two reasons: First, the evidence shows that the right of the public had become established before such change was made; and second, the change having been made by appellee for his own convenience, he is not now entitled to say that, because those who desired to drive over the road followed it as he had changed it, the right of the public in the road as changed became destroyed. Where the owner of land over which a road extends changes the route for his own convenience, and the public continue the use of the highway as changed, the public right therein does not become extinguished, but the right of the public exists in the highway as changed."