Real Estate & Property Law

Railroad drops condemnation suits

By Alan Ackerman

Wyoming Business Review

CHEYENNE — Nineteen landowners in Converse, Weston, Campbell and Niobrara counties can relax. Lawsuits filed by the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad Corp. (DM&E) to condemn parts of their property as rights of way for a new coal-hauling train line were dropped yesterday. DM&E has been working on a plan to ship Powder River Basin coal across South Dakota and Minnesota for at least fifteen years. The new line would have extended 278 miles and cost $6 billion. Some of the landowners in the new line's path resisted the plans, so the railroad company filed the condemnation lawsuits in 2007. DM&E was then acquired by Canadian Pacific, which assumed control in October of 2008. When DM&E's attorneys filed a notice of dismissal in U.S. District Court in Cheyenne yesterday, they noted 'significant changes in the economic climate' as well as a tightening of the supply of available financing as reasons behind the suits' dismissal.

The owners are potentially stuck for the fees in defending themselves from a needless take under Federal Court Rules.  It will be based, at least in part, on how FRCP 70.1 is used.  Have no fear that the owners are not done!   Good luck to them.

Full post as published by National Eminent Domain Blog on September 04, 2009 (boomark / email).