BUFFALO TP. v. Jones

• Decision Date: 14 June 2001
• Parties: BUFFALO TOWNSHIP v. Carl E. JONES, Katheryn L. Jones, Larry W. Tredway, Kassie Tredway, David C. Jones, Sylvia J. Jones, Jerry Purcell and Margie Purcell, Appellants.
• Court: Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court

778 A.2d 1269

BUFFALO TOWNSHIP v. Carl E. JONES, Katheryn L. Jones, Larry W. Tredway, Kassie Tredway, David C. Jones, Sylvia J. Jones, Jerry Purcell and Margie Purcell, Appellants.

Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued May 7, 2001.

Decided June 14, 2001.

William Claney Smith, Pittsburgh, for appellants.

Lawrence P. Lutz, Butler, for appellee.

Alexander H. Lindsay, Jr., Butler, for amicus curiae, Summit Township.

Before COLINS, Judge, PELLEGRINI, Judge (P.), and RODGERS, Senior Judge.

PELLEGRINI, Judge.

Carl E. Jones, Katheryn L. Jones, Larry W. Tredway, Kassie Tredway, David C. Jones, Sylvia J. Jones, Jerry Purcell and Margie Purcell (collectively, Property Owners) appeal from an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Butler County (trial court) granting a permanent injunction enjoining them from blocking or obstructing a recreational trail or threatening, intimidating or coercing agents and employees of Buffalo Township or users of the trail.

This controversy involves a dispute over whether a 20.7-mile long right-of-way formerly known as the Butler Branch of a railway owned and operated by Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) has been abandoned and, if not abandoned, whether it can be used by Buffalo Township as a recreational trail. In the late 1860s, Conrail (formerly known as the Western Pennsylvania Railroad Company) constructed the Butler Branch that ran between Freeport, Armstrong County and Butler, Butler County. In the process of constructing the railway, Conrail secured rights-of-way and easements over privately-owned property through condemnation proceedings and right-of-way agreements.¹

Pursuant to Section 308 of the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973, 45 U.S.C. § 748, Conrail notified the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)² of its intent to file an application for abandonment of the Butler Branch railroad line due to insufficient revenue on October 31, 1985. Subsequently, Conrail filed a request for approval of abandonment of the railroad line with the ICC on June 5, 1987. On September 14, 1987, the ICC issued a Certificate of Decision and Order authorizing Conrail to abandon the 20.7 mile of the railroad line known as the Butler Branch.

In the early spring of 1990, B. Sykes Ltd., a salvage company, purchased the rails and ties from Conrail on the right-of-way and removed the rails and ties along the railroad line. On June 11, 1991, Conrail conveyed by quitclaim deed all of its rights, title and interest in the property to B. Sykes Ltd. who, in June 1991, in turn, conveyed by quitclaim deed all of its rights, title and interest in the property to Buffalo Township on June 14, 1991.

In 1992, Buffalo Township began to develop the railway property as a recreational trail pursuant to the Pennsylvania Rails to Trails Act, Act of December 18, 1990, P.L. 748, 32 P.S. §§ 5611-5622 (Pennsylvania Trails Act), and the National Trails System Act, 16 U.S.C. §§ 1241-1251 (National Trails Act). Seeking to enjoin adjacent property owners from interfering with the public's use of the trail, Buffalo Township filed a complaint in equity and simultaneously filed a motion for preliminary injunction which the trial court granted. Ultimately, the trial court granted a permanent injunction based on its finding that Conrail did not abandon the right-of-way, and Buffalo Township had the authority under the National Trails Act to construct the recreational trail and enjoined Property Owners from blocking or obstructing the trail in any way, threatening, intimidating or coercing agents and employees of Buffalo Township or any individuals using the trail. This appeal followed.³

I.

Normally, a railroad right-of-way terminates and the property interest reverts back to the property owner when the land ceases to be used for railroad purposes. See Brookbank v. Benedum-Trees Oil Company, 389 Pa. 151, 131 A.2d 103 (1957)

; Quarry Office Park Associates v. Philadelphia Electric Company, 394 Pa.Super. 426, 576 A.2d 358 (1990); Lacy v. East Broad Top Railroad & Coal Co., 168 Pa.Super. 351, 77 A.2d 706 (1951). Property Owners contend that because the right-of-way has ceased being used for railroad purposes, interest in the property reverts to them under Pennsylvania law.

While that is normally true, in order to establish a nationwide system of nature trails, Congress enacted the National Trail Systems Act, 16 U.S.C. §§ 1241-1251, as amended, in 1968.⁴ Under this Act, Congress reserved to itself the right to designate scenic and historical trails, and delegated to the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture the authority to designate recreational trails and to develop and administer the trails system. See 16 U.S.C. §§ 1243, 1244 and 1246. The Act further provided that state or local governments or federal authorities could acquire the land necessary for a designated trail through cooperative agreements with landowners or by purchase; however, if all voluntary means for acquiring the right-of-way failed, the appropriate Secretary was given limited power to utilize condemnation proceedings in order to acquire private lands. 16 U.S.C. § 1246.

Concerned about the substantial decrease in railway tracks throughout the country and in an effort to preserve railroad rights-of-way by converting unused rights-of-way to recreational trails, Congress enacted substantial amendments to the National Trail Systems Act in 1983. See 16 U.S.C. §§ 1241-1251. Those amendments authorized the ICC to preserve for possible future railroad use rights-of-way not currently in service and to allow interim use of the land as recreational trails. 16 U.S.C. § 1241. Section 8(d) of the National Trail Act provides that a railroad wishing to cease operations along a particular route may negotiate with a state, municipality or private group that is prepared to assume financial and managerial responsibility for the right-of-way. 16 U.S.C. § 1247(d).

The constitutionality of the National Trails Act was addressed by the United States Supreme Court in Preseault v. Interstate Commerce Commission, 494 U.S. 1, 110 S.Ct. 914, 108 L.Ed.2d 1 (1990). Concluding that the Act was reasonably adapted to two legitimate congressional purposes under the Commerce Clause—preserving rail corridors for future railroad use and permitting public recreational use of trails, the Court upheld the constitutionality of the National Trails Act as a valid exercise of congressional power under the Commerce Clause. In doing so, it held that railroad rights-of-way could be converted into recreational trails notwithstanding whatever reversionary property interests existed under state law.

The Court also addressed whether the National Trails Act violated the Fifth Amendment by precluding reversion of state property interests resulting in a taking of the underlying property owners' future interest in the railroad right-of-way. Although not determining whether a taking had occurred in the case before it, the Court held that a violation of the Fifth Amendment only occurred where there was a taking of private property for public use without just compensation. The Court further determined that the Fifth Amendment merely required that compensation be made, not that compensation be paid prior to or contemporaneously with the taking. At the time of the actual taking, the only requirement was the presence of a "reasonable, certain and adequate provision for obtaining compensation" and that the property owner had no claim that an unconstitutional taking has occurred unless he or she had first utilized the available provision and received no compensation.

Because even if a taking had occurred, the property owners in Preseault had a sufficient remedy under the Tucker Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1491(a)(1), or the Little Tucker Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1346(a)(2) (creating concurrent jurisdiction in the district courts for such claims not exceeding $10,000 in amount), the Court held that the Fifth Amendment was not violated. Accordingly, where a railroad right-of-way was transformed into a recreational trail further burdening the property owner's fees simple interest, the property owner was forced to seek added compensation either under the Tucker Act or for a de facto taking under Section 502 of the Pennsylvania Eminent Domain Code, Act of June 22, 1964, Special Sess., P.L. 84, as amended, 26 P.S. § 1-502. In this appeal, Property Owners do not make any challenge that there was any uncompensated taking but simply that the National Trails Act does not apply.

II.

The first reason that Property Owners contend that the National Trails Act does not apply to this case is because that Act requires that a state, political subdivision or private interest reserve a railroad right-of-way for interim use while an abandonment proceeding is ongoing where, in this case, the railroad right-of-way was abandoned in 1987 by order of the ICC. It argues that once abandonment proceedings were completed, the railroad right-of-way had been dissolved and could not be rail banked for future railroad purposes or utilized for an interim use under the Act, and, therefore, Buffalo Township had no right to develop the right-of-way as a recreational trail. While they acknowledge that for there to be an abandonment of a railroad right-of-way, there must be an actual abandonment demonstrated by intent to abandon accompanied by external acts effecting that intention, id.; Burnier v. Department of Environmental Resources, 148 Pa.Cmwlth. 530, 611 A.2d 1366 (1992),

Property Owners argue that the facts of this case establish both an intent on the part of Conrail to abandon the Butler Branch and external acts effectuating that intention, which include the following:

• On October 31, 1985, Conrail filed a Notice of Insufficient Revenues with the ICC.

• On June 8, 1987, Conrail requested approval from the ICC to abandon the Butler Branch pursuant to 45 U.S.C. § 748.

• On September 14, 1987, the ICC issued a Certificate and Decision...