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An Act To Create a Cause of Action for Damage to Public Easements
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 17 MRSA §3853-D, sub-§1, as amended by PL 1995, c. 539, §1, is further amended to read:
 
1. Damage or destruction to farmland, forest land or public easement.   A person who, as a result of operating a motor vehicle on farmland or, forest land or a public easement in fact, damages or destroys crops, forest products, personal property or roads on that farmland or, forest land or public easement, commits a Class E crime.
Sec. 2.  17 MRSA §3853-D, sub-§2, ¶C  is enacted to read:
 
C.  "Public easement" means an easement held for purposes of public access to land or water retained as the result of abandonment or discontinuance of a public way.
Sec. 3. 17 MRSA §3853-D, sub-§3, ¶D, as amended by PL 1995, c. 539, §1, is further amended to read:
 
D. A law enforcement officer who, in an emergency and in the scope of that law enforcement officer's employment, operates a motor vehicle on farmland or forest land owned by another or on a public easement.
 
SUMMARY
This bill provides that a person who, as a result of operating a motor vehicle on a public easement in fact, damages or destroys crops, forest products, personal property or roads on that public easement commits a Class E crime.