Pennsylvania court upholds borough's duty to maintain steps after 130 years of public use

Public steps connecting two streets may look like an ordinary part of a neighbourhood, but responsibility for maintaining them can become complicated when they run across privately owned land. A Pennsylvania couple faced that issue after their borough disputed its obligation to maintain a set of steps that had been used by residents for generations.

The couple argued that the public had relied on the passage for more than a century and that the borough had repeatedly repaired and maintained it using public resources.The dispute reached Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Court after the Borough of Jim Thorpe challenged a lower court ruling requiring it to continue maintaining the High Street Steps. In its October 30, 2026, decision in TM Loughery and MK Loughery v.

Borough of Jim Thorpe, docket number 466 C.D. 2025, available on Justia, the appeals court upheld the ruling.