Glosemeyer v. United States
United States Court of Federal Claims
45 Fed.Cl. 771 (2000)
A railroad, MKT, held an easement across the Glosemeyers' (plaintiffs) land, which under ordinary Missouri law would revert to the Glosemeyers upon abandonment; but the federal Rails to Trails Act lets a railroad seeking to abandon service instead transfer its right-of-way to a trail provider for recreational use while preserving ("railbanking") the corridor for potential future rail use, superseding state abandonment law. MKT obtained federal approval to abandon its line, removed all its tracks, and transferred its interest to the state's Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) for $200,000, which now operates a recreational trail on the former line; the Glosemeyers sued, arguing that but for the Act, the easement would have reverted to them, and that the Act's operation constituted a taking of a new easement, with both sides moving for summary judgment on liability.
Whether a railroad's abandonment of its right-of-way, followed by conversion to a recreational trail and railbanking under the Rails to Trails Act, constitutes a taking of the underlying landowners' property where the easement would otherwise have been abandoned and reverted under state law.