Transportation – railroads — abandonment

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U.S. Supreme Court

Civil

Transportation – railroads — abandonment

Under the General Railroad Right-of-Way Act of 1875, the right of way was an easement that was terminated by the railroad’s abandonment, leaving the property unburdened.

The Government asks this Court to limit Great Northern’s characterization of 1875 Act rights of way as easements to the question of who owns the oil and minerals beneath a right of way. But nothing in the 1875 Act’s text supports that reading, and the Government’s reliance on the similarity of the language in the 1875 Act and pre1871 statutes directly contravenes the very premise of Great Northern: that the 1875 Act granted a fundamentally different interest than did its predecessor statutes. Nor do this Court’s decisions in Stalker v. Oregon Short Line R. Co., 225 U. S. 142, and Great Northern R. Co. v. Steinke, 261 U. S. 119, support the Government’s position. The dispute in each of those cases was framed in terms of competing claims to acquire and develop a particular tract of land, and it does not appear that the Court considered—much less rejected—an argument that the railroad had only an easement in the contested land. But to the extent that those cases could be read to imply that the interest was something more, any such implication would not have survived this Court’s unequivocal statement to the contrary in Great Northern. Finally, later enacted statutes, see 43 U. S. C.§§912, 940; 16 U. S. C. §1248(c), do not define or shed light on the nature of the interest Congress granted to railroads in their rights of way in 1875. They instead purport only to dispose of interests (if any) the United States already possesses.

496 Fed. Appx. 822, reversed and remanded.

12-1173 Marvin M. Brandt Revocable Trust v. U.S.

Roberts, C.J.; Sotomayor, J., dissenting.