Castillo v. United States, 16-1624L

• Decision Date: 29 June 2018
• Docket Number: No. 17-1931L,No. 16-1624L,16-1624L,17-1931L
• Parties: REINALDO CASTILLO, et al., Plaintiffs, v. UNITED STATES, Defendant. NELSON MENENDEZ, et al., Plaintiffs, v. UNITED STATES, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. Claims Court

REINALDO CASTILLO, et al., Plaintiffs,
v.
UNITED STATES, Defendant.

NELSON MENENDEZ, et al., Plaintiffs,
v.
UNITED STATES, Defendant.

No. 16-1624L
No. 17-1931L

United States Court of Federal Claims

June 29, 2018

Motion for Partial Summary Judgment; Takings Claim; Trails Act, 16 U.S.C. § 1241 et seq.; Florida Law; Center Line Presumption.

Lindsay S.C. Brinton, Arent Fox, LLP, Clayton, MO, for plaintiffs. Of counsel was Mark F. Hearne, II, Arent Fox, LLP, Washington, D.C.

Davené D. Walker, Trial Attorney, Environment & Natural Resources Section, Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., for defendant. With her was Jeffrey H. Wood, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Environment & Natural Resources Division, Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. Of counsel was Theodore Hunt, Associate General Counsel, Surface Transportation Board, Washington, D.C.

Page 2

OPINION

Horn, J.

The nineteen plaintiffs in Reinaldo Castillo, et al., v. United States, Case No. 16-1624 (Castillo),¹ and the three plaintiffs in Nelson Menendez, et al., v. United States, Case No. 17-1931 (Menendez),² the two above-captioned and consolidated cases before this court, are landowners along the same railroad line in Florida. Each own a parcel of land in a subdivision that is "[a]djacent" to the South Little River Branch Railroad Line (railroad corridor), as stipulated to in both cases by the parties in two separate tables submitted to the court with entries for each of the Castillo and Menendez plaintiffs regarding: "Claim Number;" "Plaintiffs;" "Parcel Number;" "Owned Parcel on NITU Date;" "Adjacent to ROW;" "Applicable RR Conveyance;" and "Nature of RR Ownership." The two separate tables were included in the parties' Joint Stipulations Regarding Title submitted to the court in Castillo on August 22, 2017, and in Menendez on February 23, 2018, and appear later in the opinion. Both sets of plaintiffs also allege that as "[a]djacent" landowners to the railroad corridor, they own the land that runs to the center line of the railroad corridor. They also each allege that when the United States government, the defendant, authorized the South Little River Branch Railroad Line to be used for a public recreational trail, pursuant to the National Trails System Act, 16 U.S.C. § 1241 et seq. (2012) (the Trails Act), the government destroyed their reversionary rights to exclusive use and possession of the land underlying the railroad corridor, effectively taking their property without just compensation. According to the Castillo and Menendez plaintiffs, they are, therefore, entitled to receive just compensation under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution for the government's taking of their private property.

Page 3

FACTS

The Florida East Coast Railway operates the section of the railroad corridor at issue, which spans 100 feet in width and runs approximately 1.21 miles on the South Little River Branch Railroad Line between milepost LR 11+3989 and milepost LR 13+0000 in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The land upon which the railroad corridor at issue was built was obtained by the Florida East Coast Railway through multiple conveyances in the 1920s. In particular, the section of the railroad corridor at issue is comprised of four unequally sized and separate rights-of-way and a strip of land resulting from a written deed, that when combined, span 100 feet wide and comprise part of the 1.21 mile long railroad corridor. In 1932, the Florida East Coast Railway constructed a railroad line on this 1.21 mile strip of land.

According to the map depicting an aerial view of the railroad corridor attached to plaintiffs' cross-motions for partial summary judgment in Castillo and Menendez, to which defendant does not take issue, the section of the railroad corridor at issue is actually comprised of four separate rights-of-way obtained by condemnation and one property interest obtained by the Holman deed, which are not all adjacent to the parcels belonging to the plaintiffs in Castillo and Menendez. According to the aerial map submitted by the plaintiffs, three of the four rights-of-way, the Russo, Johnson, and J. Pyles and J. Owens rights-of-way, discussed below, when combined, form the eastern edge of the railroad corridor that runs adjacent to the twenty-two parcels belonging to the Castillo and Menendez plaintiffs. The Stanley right-of-way, and the Holman property interest obtained by a deed, when combined, form the western side of the railroad corridor, and, therefore are separated from the Castillo and Menendez plaintiffs' parcels by one of the other three rights-of-way at issue, as depicted on plaintiffs' aerial map attached to their cross-motions for partial summary judgment in Castillo and Menendez.

The Holman Conveyance

The Florida East Coast Railway obtained its first relevant property interest by conveyance on July 20, 1923 by deed from G.F. and Mary J. Holman. The Holman deed, titled "Warranty Deed," states that on July 20, 1923,

GF Holman and Mary J Holman, his wife . . . parties of the first part, and FLORIDA EAST COAST RAILWAY COMPANY, . . . party of the second part, WITNESSETH, that the said parties of the first part, for and in consideration of the sum of ($3,000.00) *******THREE THOUSAND********* Dollars, . . . . granted, bargained, and sold to the said party of the second part, its successors and assigns forever, the following described land, to wit: A piece or parcel of land situated in the South-west Quarter (SW ¼) of the South-east Quarter (SE ¼) of Section Two (2) of Township Fifty-four (54) South, in Range Forty (40) East, in Dade County, Florida, bounded and described as follows:

. . .

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1320 feet more or less, to lands now or formerly of W. W. Goucher, thence Westerly along Goucher's lands 76 feet, thence South 1320 feet more or less to the South line of said Section Two (2) at a point 100 feet West of the point of beginning, thence Easterly 100 feet to the point or place of beginning. Containing 2.72 acres more or less.

(capitalization in original). As depicted by plaintiffs' aerial map attached to their cross-motion in Castillo, to which, as noted above, defendant does not take issue, the section of the railroad corridor obtained through the Holman deed runs north to south and runs parallel to the parcels of land for the following nine Castillo plaintiffs: (1) Lourdez Rodriguez, (2) Alberto Perez, (3) Mayra Lopez, (4) Niraldo Hernandez Padron and Mercedes Alina Falero, (5) Luisa Palencia and Xiomara Rodriguez, (6) Reinaldo F. Castillo, (7) Hugo E. and Concepcion V. Diaz as Co-Trustees of the Diaz Family Revocable Trust, (8) South American Tile, LLC, and (9) Gladys Hernandez. The land obtained for the railroad, which resulted from the Holman conveyance, however, as depicted on the Castillo plaintiffs' aerial map, is not adjacent to these nine parcels of land. Instead, according to plaintiffs' aerial map of the railroad corridor, wedged in between the railroad's land, which resulted from the Holman deed, and the parcels of land belonging to the nine Castillo plaintiffs is the Russo right-of-way. As previously noted, plaintiffs' aerial map depicts the location of each of the four rights-of-way obtained by condemnation and the railroad's land conveyed by the Holman conveyance, as well as the location of each of the plaintiffs' distinct parcels of land.

The Four Separate and Distinct Rights-of-Way by Condemnation

The Florida East Coast Railway obtained its first right-of-way in a condemnation proceeding in the United States Circuit Court for Dade County, Florida (Dade County Circuit Court) against "Paul Russo and Southern Bank & Trust Company" that resulted in a final judgment in favor of the Florida East Coast Railway on October 28, 1924. The final judgment issued by the Dade County Circuit Court on October 28, 1924 in the condemnation proceeding stated that the land obtained by the Florida East Coast Railway from Paul Russo and the Southern Bank & Trust Company was to be used "as a right of way for the construction, location, and maintenance of the extension of its line of railroad from Okeechobee, Florida to Miami, Florida" and measures a total of .41 acres, is 25.33 feet wide along its northern border and 1.2 feet along its southern border (the Russo right-of-way). The Russo right-of-way runs north to south. To the east of the Russo right-of-way are the respective parcels of land owned by the following nine Castillo plaintiffs, which are adjacent to the Russo right-of-way, as depicted on plaintiffs' aerial map of the railroad corridor attached to their cross-motion for partial summary judgment in Castillo:

• Lourdez Rodriguez
• Alberto Perez
• Mayra Lopez
• Niraldo Hernandez Padron and Mercedes Alina Falero
• Luisa Palencia and Xiomara Rodriguez
• Reinaldo F. Castillo

Page 5

• Hugo E. and Concepcion V. Diaz as Co-Trustees of the Diaz Family Revocable Trust
• South American Tile, LLC
• Gladys Hernandez

According to the parties' Joint Stipulations Regarding Title filed in Menendez, the Russo right-of-way is not mentioned as relevant to any of the parcels owned by the Menendez plaintiffs.

Also on October 28, 1924, the Florida East Coast Railway obtained its second right-of-way in a separate condemnation proceeding in the Dade County Circuit Court against R.S. Stanley. The final judgment entered by the Dade County Circuit Court on October 28, 1924 stated that the land obtained by the Florida East Coast Railway from R.S. Stanley (the Stanley right-of-way) was to be used "as a right of way for the construction, location, and maintenance of the extension of its line of railroad from Okeechobee, Florida to Miami, Florida." The Stanley right-of-way runs north to south, measures 1.9 acres total, is 1320 feet long, 50.54 feet wide at its norther border and 74.67 feet wide at its southern border. The Stanley right-of-way is not adjacent to any of the parcels belonging to the Castillo or Menendez plaintiffs, as depicted on plaintiffs' aerial map...