State ex rel. Nickoli v. Erie Metroparks

• Citation: 923 N.E.2d 588,124 Ohio St.3d 449,2010 Ohio 606
• Decision Date: 25 February 2010
• Docket Number: No. 2009-0026.,2009-0026.
• Parties: The STATE ex rel. NICKOLI et al. v. ERIE METROPARKS et al.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Ohio

923 N.E.2d 588

124 Ohio St.3d 449

2010-Ohio-606

The STATE ex rel. NICKOLI et al. v. ERIE METROPARKS et al.

No. 2009-0026.

Supreme Court of Ohio.

Submitted December 1, 2009.

Decided February 25, 2010.

Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease, L.L.P., Bruce L. Ingram, Joseph R. Miller, and Thomas H. Fusonie, Columbus, for relators.

Porter, Wright, Morris, & Arthur, L.L.P., and Thomas A. Young, Columbus; and Tomino & Latchney, L.L.C., and John D. Latchney, Medina, for respondents.

LUNDBERG STRATTON, J.

{¶ 1} This is an original action for a writ of mandamus to compel a park district and its board of commissioners to commence appropriation proceedings for property allegedly seized and occupied by the district. We deny the writ because (1) res judicata neither entitles relators to the requested extraordinary relief nor prevents the park district and its board of commissioners from raising defenses that they did not raise in a previous mandamus action involving different relators and (2) the statute of limitations in R.C. 2305.09(E) bars relators' takings claim.

I. Facts

{¶ 2} The historical background of the property involved and the previous litigation regarding the property are essential to understanding the posture of this case.

A. History

1. The Canal Company and the Railroad Lease

{¶ 3} In 1827, the General Assembly chartered the Milan Canal Company to construct and operate a canal from Milan, Ohio, to the Huron River. The act incorporating the canal company gave it authority "to enter upon, and take possession of any lands, waters and streams necessary to make said canal" and provided that "a complete title to the premises, to the extent and for the purposes set forth in or contemplated by this act, shall be thereby vested and forever remain in said company, and their successors." Section 8, Act of January 24, 1827, 25th General Assembly, Ohio Laws 96-97.

{¶ 4} Noncontiguous tracts of land from Ebeneser Merry and Kneeland Townsend were acquired by the canal company as part of the canal corridor. In 1881, the canal company entered into a 99-year lease with the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway Company for a 150-foot-wide right-of-way to construct and operate a railroad. The lease was renewed in 1980 for another 99 years.

{¶ 5} The canal company was dissolved in 1904, and its property interests devolved to a testamentary trust and its trustee, Key Trust Company of Ohio. The dissolution order specified that the canal company owned land "within the bounds of a strip of land one hundred and fifty feet in width, commencing at the southerly end of the canal basin of said Milan Canal Company * * * and running thence in a northerly direction to the mouth of the Huron River, * * * the east and west lines of said strip of land being one hundred and fifty feet apart and running north parallel with each other and with the central line of said railroad, as surveyed, located and being constructed."

{¶ 6} Rail traffic on the leased property ceased in the 1980s, and portions of the rail line were paved. In 1995, the railroad company's successor quitclaimed its interests to respondent Board of Commissioners of Erie MetroParks, a park district created pursuant to R.C. 1545.01 et seq. The board acquired the property to build a recreational trail.

2. Relators' Acquisition of Canal Company Property

{¶ 7} In February 2000, Key Trust conveyed a portion of the canal company property to relators Richard and Carol Rinella. Key Trust conveyed the remaining property owned by the canal company to Edwin and Lisa Coles and Buffalo Prairie, Ltd., a limited-liability company of which Edwin Coles serves as president. Sections of the canal company property were then conveyed to others, including relators Gerald O.E. Nickoli and Robin L.B. Nickoli; trustee Patricia A. Sipp (f.k.a. Charville), as to an undivided half interest, and successor trustees Patricia A. Sipp, Mark Charville, and David A. Charville, as to an undivided half interest ("Charville trusts"); Douglas Hildebrand; Dale A. Hohler and Ellen H. Hohler; Theresa R. Johnston; cotrustees John F. Landoll and Virginia A. Landoll; Michael P. Meyer and Cheryl Lyons; Donna J. Rasnick; Maria Sperling; Gary R. Steiner and Virginia M. Steiner; and Rita M. Beverick.

3. Huron River Greenway

{¶ 8} By the end of 1998, respondent Erie MetroParks had started construction of a recreational trail known as the Huron River Greenway through the corridor, which is a 66-foot-wide path. The trail was opened to the public in 2003. The former canal corridor runs through each relator's property; the recreational trail is thus located within relators' properties. None of relators' property, aside from a .9-acre piece of the Charville trusts' property within the Townsend tract, is within the Merry or Townsend tracts.

B. Litigation Involving Property

{¶ 9} In 1999, the Erie MetroParks Board of Commissioners initiated a declaratory-judgment action in the Erie County Court of Common Pleas against Key Trust. In 2000, the board filed an amended complaint for declaratory judgment that added those property owners, including most of the relators in this case, who may have received Key Trust's interests in the former canal-company property. The common pleas court entered a judgment finding that the property leased by the railroad consisted solely of the Merry and Townsend properties but that the lease was void because it had been breached by a predecessor in interest to the board of park commissioners.

{¶ 10} On appeal, the court of appeals affirmed the judgment of the common pleas court insofar as it found that the railroad lease was limited to the land obtained by the canal company from Merry and Townsend. Erie Metroparks Bd. of Commrs. v. Key Trust Co. of Ohio, N.A. (2001), 145 Ohio App.3d 782, 787-788, 764 N.E.2d 509. The court of appeals held that the trial court had, however, erred by concluding that the board's predecessor in interest had breached the railroad lease. Id. at 790, 764 N.E.2d 509. The court of appeals reversed that portion of the trial court's judgment invalidating the lease and remanded the cause for further proceedings. Id. at 791, 764 N.E.2d 509.

{¶ 11} On remand, the common pleas court held that the lessee had not abandoned the leased property, that the lease is in full force and effect, that the board of park commissioners is the current lessee and the holder of the lessee's rights under the lease, that the board is entitled to the sole occupancy and use of the leased property, that the rights of the defendants — including most of the relators here — are subject to the board's rights under the lease, and that the lease permitted the board to improve and use the leased property as a parkway or recreational trail. The trial court further concluded that the extent of the leased property was limited to the Merry and Townsend tracts conveyed to the canal company.

{¶ 12} In an appeal from the common pleas court's judgment on remand, the defendants, including most of the relators here, asserted that the portion of the judgment describing the leased property differed from a prior description, which had restricted the leased property to the Merry and Townsend parcels. The court of appeals rejected this contention by holding that the judgment on remand did not contradict the finding in the previous judgment entries "that the leased property encompassed only land obtained from Townsend and Merry." Erie Metroparks Bd. of Commrs. v. Key Trust Co. of Ohio, Erie App. Nos. E-02-009 and E-02-011, 2002-Ohio-4827, 2002 WL 31054032, ¶ 22. The court of appeals affirmed the trial court's judgment.

1. Federal Litigation

{¶ 13} In 2003, the Coleses, Buffalo Prairie, and certain other landowners filed a civil-rights action in federal district court under Sections 1983, 1985(2), and 1985(3), Title 42, U.S.Code, against the board and its director-secretary for violations of their rights under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Coles v. Granville (Jan. 24, 2005), N.D.Ohio No. 3:03 CV 7595, 2005 WL 139137. They alleged that in developing the recreational trail, the board asserted entitlement to property beyond that found to be covered by the railroad lease in the Key Trust cases. The federal district court dismissed the case and determined that, as a federal court, it was barred from reviewing the state court's findings. Id. at *4. On appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed, holding that the plaintiffs' cause of action for unconstitutional takings was not ripe for federal review when they had not brought a state action in mandamus to compel appropriation proceedings. Coles v. Granville (C.A.6, 2006), 448 F.3d 853, 865.

2. First Mandamus Case

{¶ 14} Shortly after the Sixth Circuit's decision in Coles, the Coleses, Buffalo Prairie, and certain other property owners who are successors to the canal-company property — but not including the relators in the present mandamus case — filed an action in this court for a writ of mandamus to compel the board of park commissioners and its director-secretary to either (1) commence an appropriation proceeding to compensate them for the board's taking of their property or (2) relinquish the seized property and direct the park district not to file an eminent-domain action to appropriate their property.

{¶ 15} In November 2007, we granted a writ of mandamus to compel the board to commence an appropriation proceeding to compensate the property owners for an involuntary taking of their property. State ex rel. Coles v. Granville, 116 Ohio St.3d 231, 2007-Ohio-6057, 877 N.E.2d 968, ¶ 59. We found that the property owners had "established that by employing their private property for public use as a recreational trail, the board of park commissioners has taken their property."

3. Second Mandamus Case

{¶ 16} In January 2009, relators filed this action for a writ of mandamus to compel respondents, Erie MetroParks and...