Glosemeyer v. Missouri-Kansas-Texas R. Co.

• Decision Date: 10 May 1988
• Docket Number: No. 86-2508C(6).,86-2508C(6).
• Citation: 685 F. Supp. 1108
• Parties: Maurice and Dolores GLOSEMEYER, et al., Plaintiffs, v. MISSOURI-KANSAS-TEXAS RAILROAD COMPANY, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Missouri

685 F. Supp. 1108

Maurice and Dolores GLOSEMEYER, et al., Plaintiffs, v. MISSOURI-KANSAS-TEXAS RAILROAD COMPANY, et al., Defendants.

No. 86-2508C(6).

United States District Court, E.D. Missouri.

May 10, 1988.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Ronald R. McMillin, Carson, Coil, Riley, McMillin, Levine & Veit, Jefferson City, Mo., Kemper Coffelt, Clayton, Mo., for plaintiffs.

Henry D. Menghini, Evans & Dixon, St. Louis, Mo., for M-K-T.

Edward F. Downey, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, Mo., for Brunner & DNR.

Leland B. Curtis, Harold Bamburg, St. Louis, Mo., Charles H. Montange, Washington, D.C., for intervenors.

John J. Rademacher, Gen. Counsel, Richard L. Krause, Asst. Counsel, American Farm Bureau Federation, Park Ridge, Ill., Albert H. Hamel (local counsel), Lashly, Baer & Hamel, St. Louis, Mo., for American Farm Bureau Fed.

Joseph Moore, Asst. U.S. Atty., St. Louis, Mo.

Mark Pollot, Sp. Asst. to the Acting Asst. Atty. Gen. Land and Natural Resources Div., U.S. Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C.

James E. Brookshire, Deputy Chief, Litigation Section, Land & Natural Resources Div., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C.

MEMORANDUM

GUNN, District Judge.

This action involves a challenge to Section 8(d) of the National Trails System Act, as amended, 16 U.S.C. § 1247(d) ("§ 1247(d)"). Section 1247(d), enacted in furtherance of a national policy to preserve established railroad rights-of-way for future reactivation of rail service, authorizes the Interstate Commerce Commission ("ICC") to enter orders permitting such rights-of-way to be used on an interim basis as recreational trails. Plaintiffs, adjacent landowners to a railroad right-of-way subject to an ICC order entered pursuant to § 1247(d), challenge the section on various federal and state constitutional and statutory grounds.

In 1983 Congress amended Section 8 of the National Trails System Act of 1968 by adding a provision for the interim use of railroad rights-of-way as recreational trails.¹ National Trails System Act Amendments of 1983, Pub.L.No. 98-11, § 208 (1983), (codified at 16 U.S.C. § 1247(d)). In September 1986 the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Company ("M-K-T"), pursuant to 49 U.S.C. § 10903, filed an application with the ICC to abandon approximately 200 miles of a railroad right-of-way between Machens and Sedalia, Missouri. In October 1986 the Missouri Department of Natural Resources ("DNR") filed a protest to M-K-T's application with the ICC in which it invoked § 1247(d) and requested the ICC to issue a Certificate of Interim Trail Use ("CITU") to it pursuant to § 1247(d) and the regulations promulgated thereunder. 49 C.F.R. § 1152.29 (1986). The CITU would authorize and direct interim use of the railroad right-of-way for a recreational trail while requiring retention and maintenance of the railroad corridor for reinstatement of rail service in the future. On March 6, 1987, the ICC concluded that the railroad should be relieved of its present service obligations and, to facilitate preservation of the line and its use in the interim as a trail, authorized the issuance of a CITU. Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Company— Abandonment—St. Charles, Warren, Montgomery, Calloway, Boone, Howard, Cooper and Pettis County, Mo., ICC No. AB-102 (Sub-No. 13), served March 16, 1987. On April 22, 1987, the ICC issued the CITU. Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Company—Abandonment—St. Charles, Warren, Montgomery, Calloway, Boone, Howard, Cooper and Pettis County, Mo., ICC No. AB-102 (Sub-No. 13), served April 27, 1987.

As a consequence plaintiffs filed the present action in which they challenge the transfer of interest in the railroad right-of-way from M-K-T to DNR. Plaintiffs named M-K-T, DNR and Frederick A. Brunner, the director of DNR, as defendants. However, by subsequent order of the Court, the United States of America and eleven environmental and recreational interest groups ("Interest Groups") were permitted to intervene as defendants.² In addition, the Court granted the American Farm Bureau Federation and the Missouri Farm Bureau Federation leave to file briefs in support of plaintiffs as amici curiae.

In their complaint, plaintiffs allege that their predecessors in interest granted a right-of-way over their property to the predecessors in interest of M-K-T. A representative conveyance attached as Exhibit B to their complaint, and executed by the predecessors in interest of one of the plaintiffs and M-K-T, indicates that the right-of-way was conveyed "for the purpose of a Railroad, and for no other purpose" and that the railroad is only "to have and hold" this right-of-way "for the purpose of establishing, constructing and maintaining a Railroad on the said lands ... conveyed...." As the alleged owners of the fee underlying the right-of-way, plaintiffs contend that but for § 1247(d) their reversionary interests in the right-of-way would have vested in them under state law upon M-K-T's decision to abandon its line and that M-K-T would therefore have no interest in the right-of-way to transfer to DNR.

Plaintiffs ostensibly challenge § 1247(d), the ICC regulations implementing § 1247(d) and the ICC order of March 6, 1987 applying § 1247(d) and the regulations to the M-K-T right-of-way. Plaintiffs advance numerous theses in support of their challenge, primarily that § 1247(d) and the ICC's regulations and order of March 6, 1987 constitute: (1) an invalid exercise of the commerce clause power under Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution; (2) an impermissible impairment of the obligation of contracts under Article I, Section 10 of the United States Constitution; (3) a violation of due process under the fifth and fourteenth amendments of the United States Constitution; (4) a taking of property without just compensation under the fifth amendment of the United States Constitution; and (5) a violation of various Missouri constitutional and statutory provisions. As a result plaintiffs request the Court to declare § 1247(d) and the ICC's regulations and order of March 6, 1987 unconstitutional and to quiet title in plaintiffs of their respective interests in the M-K-T right-of-way. The Interest Groups have also filed a counterclaim against plaintiffs in which they request the Court to declare § 1247(d) and the ICC's regulations and order constitutional.

Presently before the Court are plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment,³ defendants M-K-T, DNR and Brunner's motion for summary judgment, defendant Interest Groups' motion for judgment on the pleadings or, in the alternative, for summary judgment, and defendant United States' motion for partial summary judgment. For the following reasons, and upon consideration of the arguments advanced by the parties, the Court grants defendants' motions for summary judgment and denies plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment.

A. Jurisdiction

The Court has jurisdiction to consider plaintiffs' challenge to § 1247(d) under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 and 1337(a). However, the Court is without jurisdiction to consider their challenge to the ICC's regulations implementing § 1247(d) and to its order of March 6, 1987 applying § 1247(d) and the implementing regulations to the M-K-T right-of-way. Under 28 U.S.C. § 2321, proceedings "to enjoin or suspend, in whole or in part, a rule, regulation, or order of the ICC" are to be brought in the federal circuit courts of appeal in accordance with the Hobbs Act, 28 U.S.C. § 2341, et seq. Under the applicable provision of the Hobbs Act, the federal circuit courts of appeal have exclusive jurisdiction to "... determine the validity of ... all rules, regulations, or final orders of the ICC made reviewable by 28 U.S.C. § 2321." 28 U.S. C. § 2342. Thus the federal circuit courts of appeal have exclusive jurisdiction to consider plaintiffs' challenge to the ICC's implementing regulations and order of March 6, 1987. Accordingly, the Court considers only plaintiffs' challenge to § 1247(d) and dismisses so much of their complaint which seeks to challenge the ICC's regulations and order.

B. The Commerce Clause

Plaintiffs and amici curiae contend that Congress exceeded its power under the commerce clause by enacting § 1247(d) because the regulatory scheme embodied in § 1247(d) is not reasonably related to Congress's avowed purpose of preserving railroad rights-of-way for future reactivation of rail service. By electing to postpone railroad abandonments and the vesting of landowners' reversionary interests in railroad rights-of-way, Congress "cheated landowners out of their reversionary rights" under the pretext of "railbanking" so as to encourage the development of recreational trails. See Amici Curiae's Memorandum in Opposition to Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment and in Support of Plaintiff-Intervenor's Motion for Summary Judgment at 14-21. The Court finds such an argument to be without merit.⁴

(i) Standard of Review

A court's task in evaluating a particular exercise of congressional power under the commerce clause is "relatively narrow." Hodel v. Virginia Surface Mining & Reclamation Association, 452 U.S. 264, 276, 101 S.Ct. 2352, 2360, 69 L.Ed.2d 1 (1981). First, "the court must defer to a congressional finding that a regulated activity affects interstate commerce, if there is any rational basis for such a finding." Hodel, 452 U.S. at 276, 101 S.Ct. at 2360 (citations omitted). Second, when the court satisfies itself that the regulated activity does affect interstate commerce, it must determine "whether `the means chosen by Congress is reasonably adapted to the ends permitted by the Constitution.'" Hodel, 452 U.S. at 276, 101 S.Ct. at 2306 (quoting Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States, 379 U.S. 241, 262, 85 S.Ct. 348, 360, 13 L.Ed.2d 258 (1964)). "The judicial task is at an end once the court determines that Congress acted rationally in adopting a particular regulatory scheme." Hodel, 452 U.S. at 276, 101 S.Ct. at 2360. Such limited judicial review is required as the...