Pressly v. United States

Decision Date23 March 2021
Docket NumberNo. 18-1964L,No. 19-1375L (Consolidated),18-1964L,19-1375L (Consolidated)
PartiesROBERT PRESSLY and JANE PRESSLY et al., Plaintiffs, v. THE UNITED STATES, Defendant.
CourtU.S. Claims Court

ROBERT PRESSLY and JANE PRESSLY et al., Plaintiffs,
v.
THE UNITED STATES, Defendant.

No. 18-1964L
No. 19-1375L (Consolidated)

United States Court of Federal Claims

March 23, 2021


Trails Act; Indiana Law; Property Interest Conveyed via Release Executed Pursuant to Railroad Company's Legislative Charter; Fee Simple Versus Easement; Cross-Motions for Summary Judgment; Request to Certify Questions to the Indiana Supreme Court; Indiana Supreme Court's Adherence to Its Prior Rulings

Steven M. Wald, St. Louis, MO, for plaintiffs.

Brian R. Herman, United States Department of Justice, Washington, DC, for defendant.

OPINION AND ORDER

SWEENEY, Senior Judge

Plaintiffs in this case, along with plaintiffs in five other cases before the undersigned, own real property adjacent to a railroad line in Marion and Hamilton Counties, Indiana.1 They contend that the United States violated the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution by authorizing the conversion of the railroad line into a recreational trail pursuant to the National Trail Systems Act ("Trails Act"), thus acquiring their property by inverse condemnation. Four of the cases, including this one, are proceeding in a coordinated manner,2 and a subset of plaintiffs from these cases ("Group 2 plaintiffs") assert claims that require the resolution of a single dispositive legal issue: whether a particular instrument by which the railroad company acquired the portion of the railroad corridor adjacent to their parcels conveyed an easement or a fee simple

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estate. The parties filed nearly identical cross-motions for summary judgment in each case. As explained in more detail below, the court denies plaintiffs' motion and grants in part defendant's motion.

I. BACKGROUND

On January 19, 1846, the Indiana General Assembly enacted an "Act to incorporate the Peru and Indianapolis Railroad Company."3 Pursuant to that legislative charter, the Peru and Indianapolis Railroad Company ("PIRC") was authorized to construct a railroad line within Indiana originating in the town of Peru, running through the towns of Kokomo and Noblesville, and terminating in Indianapolis. The legislative charter provided that the railroad corridor was to be no more than eighty feet wide, and could be acquired using a number of mechanisms:

Sec. 15. It shall be lawful for the corporation, either before or after the location of any section of the Road, to obtain from the persons through whose land the same may pass, a relinquishment of so much of the land as may be necessary for the construction and location of the road; as also, the stone, gravel and timber, and other materials that may be obtained on the said route, and may contract for stone, gravel, timber, and other materials that may be obtained from any land near thereto: and it shall be lawful for said corporation to receive by donations, gifts, grants, or bequests, land, money, labor, property, stone, gravel, wood, or other materials, for the benefit of said corporation . . . .

Sec. 16. That in all cases where any person through whose land the road may run, shall refuse to relinquish the same, or when a contract by the parties cannot be made, it shall be lawful for the corporation to [initiate condemnation proceedings].

. . . .

Sec. 18. That if it shall be found necessary and advantageous to the location and construction of said road, the corporation shall have the right to lay the same along and upon any county or State road: Provided however, That before such location is made, the corporation shall make application to the county commissioners of the proper county, for such right; and said commissioners are hereby vested with power to grant the same, by an order entered upon their records: And provided also, That such right shall be granted on condition that the corporation shall leave a sufficiency of said State or county road in as good repair, for common use, as previous to such occupation.

Further, with respect to the PIRC's acquisition of the railroad corridor, the charter provided (footnote added):

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Sec. 19. That when said corporation shall have procured the right of way, as herein before provided, they shall be seized, in fee simple, of the right to such land, and they shall have the sole use and occupancy of the same, but not to interfere with the right of way of any Railroad company heretofore incorporated;4 and no person, body politic or corporate, shall in any way interfere with, molest, disturb or injure any of the rights or privileges hereby granted, or that would be calculated to detract from or affect the profits of said corporation.

In accordance with its legislative charter, the PIRC acquired the portions of the railroad corridor at issue in this case in the 1840s (primarily in 1848) and early 1850s (either in 1851 or 1853). Frequently, its acquisitions were accomplished using recorded instruments that will be referred to generally as "releases." All but two of the releases in the record before the court include identical preprinted language:5

I, __________ of the county of __________ and State of Indiana, for, and in consideration of the advantages which can or will result to the public in general, and myself in particular, by the construction of the "PERU AND INDIANAPOLIS RAILROAD," as now is, or may hereafter be, surveyed, or finally located, and for the purpose of facilitating the construction and completion of said work, do hereby, and for myself, my heirs, executors, administrators and assigns, RELEASE and RELINQUISH to the "PERU AND INDIANAPOLIS RAILROAD COMPANY" the right of way for so much of said road as may pass through or cut the following piece, parcel or lot of land, to wit: __________

And I do further release and relinquish to the said PERU AND INDIANAPOLIS RAILROAD COMPANY all DAMAGES and right to DAMAGES which I might sustain or be entitled to, by reason of anything connected with or consequent upon the construction of said road or the repairing thereof.

Moreover, most of these releases include a third preprinted paragraph:

And I do [license] and permit said Company, or any authorized agent of the same, to enter upon said land, and take therefrom any timber, stone, sand,

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gravel, earth or other materials for the construction and repairing of said road from time to time.

On all of the preprinted releases, a description of the "piece, parcel or lot of land" was handwritten at the end of the first paragraph. Two of these releases included additional handwritten language after the description. On the release executed by Silas McCole on March 9, 1853 ("McCole release") was this handwritten clause: "and do further relinquish all damage for earth taken out Side of the right of way and for earth put out Side the eighty feet or for using other earth or materials taken to construct the Peru & Indianapolis Rail Road across said land." And on the release executed by Richard Shelley in September 1848 ("Shelley release") was this handwritten clause:

the above Relinquishment is given in consideration of the President & Directors of the Peru & Indianapolis Rail Road Company paying the undersigned Seventeen Dollars & fifty cents and the company further agree to dig two pits for the undersigned where he may designate for the use of his fences where . . . the same may cross.

The other two releases in the record before the court are entirely handwritten. The first was executed by Daniel Lovett ("Lovett release") and provided:

This indenture made this Second day of Nov. AD 1848 between Daniel Lovett . . . and the Peru and Indianapolis Rail Road Company . . . , that the said Lovett for and in consideration of the advantages which can or will result to the public and to himself in particular by the construction of the Peru and Indianapolis Rail Road, as it is now located through the tract of land hereinafter described and for the purpose of facilitating the construction and completion of said work does hereby for himself and his heirs and assigns, release and relinquish to the Peru and Indianapolis Rail Road Company the right of way for so much of said Road as may pass through or cut the following piece parcel or lot of land, to wit, [description of land]. The foregoing grant and release is upon the following [agreement] and condition, to wit, the said Peru and Indianapolis Rail Road Company shall pay to the said Lovett for the land so taken and occupied by them at the rate of twenty dollars per acre, which in the wood land shall include the whole width from which it is necessary to cut off the wood and timber, and upon the residue of the land it shall include all that part occupied by the grade . . . and the fence enclosing the road. The said Rail Road Company agree to dig plank up and keep in repair pits at each and every place where any fence upon said tract of land now crosses the track of said Road or they may enclose the road with a good fence and keep the same in repair, and to pay for all the injury that may be done by means of said Road and the transportation of produce merchandise or passengers thereon, and by means of said pits to the live stock of any and all persons who may be occupants of the premises hereinbefore described before the said enclosing fences shall be constructed or while the same shall be out of repair. The said Rail Road Company agree to leave all of the apple trees uninjured which may stand upon said premises outside of the grade of said Road. The said Lovett

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reserves to himself his heirs and assigns all the wood and timber upon said premises standing or being within the survey of said Road, and the right to remove the same at all reasonable times. Said Lovett also reserves the right to cross the track of said Road upon said premises with teams and loaded vehicles at all convenient times and places. The said Rail Road Company agree to pay the said Lovett for the said release as follows, to wit, twenty five dollars by the first day of Nov. 1848, and the residue by the first day of February 1849.

The...

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