Fager v. CenturyLink Communications, LLC

854 F.3d 1167, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 23542, 2016 WL 8077930
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedAugust 29, 2016
DocketNo. 15-2109
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 854 F.3d 1167 (Fager v. CenturyLink Communications, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fager v. CenturyLink Communications, LLC, 854 F.3d 1167, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 23542, 2016 WL 8077930 (10th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

HARTZ, Circuit Judge.

James Ziegler appeals the district court’s final approval of a class-action settlement agreement to resolve landowner claims against telecommunications companies for their installation of fiber-optic cable underneath railroad rights-of-way. He contends that class members did not receive adequate notice of the settlement and the settlement is unfair. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

In the 1980s, telecommunications companies sought to create a nationwide network of fiber-optic cable. See In re WorldCom, Inc., 347 B.R. 123, 132 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. 2006). Because railroad lines offered an existing grid with a limited number of owners, cable companies purchased from the railroads the right to lay cable within their rights-of-way. See id. Beginning in the 1990s, however, some who owned the land subject to the rights-of-way began to challenge the right to enter and install cable on the land, suing the telecommunications companies on various theories, including trespass. See id.

Property owners sought to proceed through nationwide class litigation but the [1169]*1169patchwork nature of railroad property rights and differences in state property law demanded caution. The rights-of-way were created by a variety of means and a variety of actors. The railroads obtained some through public land grants, see Isaacs v. Sprint Corp., 261 F.3d 679, 680-81 (7th Cir. 2001), some through the exercise of the power of eminent domain, see id.; Forwood v. Delmarva Power & Light Co., No. CIV. A. 10948, 1998 WL 136572, at *4 (Del. Ch. Mar. 16, 1998), and some through agreements with private landowners, see Jeffery M. Heftman, Railroad Right-of-Way Easements, Utility Appor-tionments, and Shifting Technological Realities, 2002 U. Ill. L. Rev. 1401, 1406-07 (2002). And the scope of the rights varied from one property to another. Some interests “did not include a right to use the right-of-way for non-railroad purposes” or may have lapsed altogether. Cascade Corp. v. Sprint Commc’ns Co., L.P., 845 F.Supp.2d 328, 329 (D. Me. 2012); see Uhl v. Thoroughbred Tech. & Telecomms., Inc., 309 F.3d 978, 987 (7th Cir. 2002) (the right-of-way may have lapsed, may have been limited to railroad purposes, or may have been broad enough to allow a conveyance to telecommunications companies). Thus, whether a railroad had the right to sell access to a cable company hinged upon analysis of “different conveyances by and to different parties made at different times over a period of more than a century (railroading began in the United States in the 1830s) in 48 different states (plus the District of Columbia) which have different laws regarding the scope of easements, ... whose application involves intricate legal and factual issues....” Isaacs, 261 F.3d at 682. Courts therefore repeatedly rebuffed attempts to certify what they saw as a “nightmare of a class action.” Id.; see Smith v. Sprint Commc’ns Co., L.P., 387 F.3d 612, 615 (7th Cir. 2004) (reversing certification of nationwide settlement class); Cascade, 845 F.Supp.2d at 330 (listing failed certification efforts). But see Fisher v. Virginia Elec. & Power Co., 217 F.R.D. 201, 214-15 (E.D. Va. 2003) (certification appropriate in fiber-optic class action because easements obtained by one company in two states involved only limited variations in law and terms of easement).

Although unable to certify a nationwide class, the parties continued negotiations. By 2007, with the help of a mediator, they agreed to terms on 46 separate statewide settlement agreements (excluded were Louisiana and Tennessee, represented by different class counsel, and Alaska and Hawaii). The parties sought approval of these agreements in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. See Kingsborough v. Sprint Commc’ns Co., L.P., 673 F.Supp.2d 24 (D. Mass. 2009). Under the proposed settlements, class members (unless they opted out) would receive compensation for each linear foot of affected property. See id. at 28. The amount received per foot would “vary greatly, based upon the parties’ state-by-state analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the claims and defenses at issue,” arising from “the particularities of state laws with regard to the extent of the railroads’ easements, whether continuing trespass is a viable claim, statutes of limitations, and applicable measures of damages.” Id. In return, class members would release all claims against the telecommunications companies and against the railroads (who were not parties to the litigation), see id. at 29; and current landowners would “grant to the settling defendants and their successors, assigns, and licensees, a perpetual easement and right-of-way,” id. at 28. To deal with class members who failed to provide easements, the district court would use Fed. R. Civ. P. 70 to authorize a claims administrator to execute and convey easements on behalf of those class members. See id. at 28-29. But [1170]*1170the court refused to approve the settlements, holding that it lacked jurisdiction over claims concerning title to land outside Massachusetts. See id. at 35.

The parties therefore agreed to present each statewide agreement for approval in an action commenced in that state. Hence the case before us, which concerns a proposed statewide settlement agreement submitted to the United States District Court for the. District of New Mexico. The New Mexico Defendants are CenturyLink Communications, LLC; Level 3 Communications, LLC; and WilTel Communications, LLC. The class comprises current and former owners of property underneath or adjacent to 631 miles of railroad right-of-way. As Ziegler’s attorney stated in district court, most of the rights-of-way are useless to the class members:

Many landowners sort of look at the railroad right-of-way which is either adjacent to their land or transverses their land as sort of a no man’s land. In almost every case, it is fenced on both sides. It’s around 200 feet wide for most places in the state of New Mexico, and it is difficult to access. In Mr. Ziegler’s case, there is a three-strand barbed wire fence on both sides of that easement that he needs to cross in order to find his way onto the easement. So a landowner might not be too concerned about what is going to be happening on that railroad right-of-way, but I can let the court know that a landowner is going to be very concerned about what happens on the ... land adjacent to the right-of-way.

Fairness Hr’g Tr. at 61:23-62:12, Aplee. Supp. App. at 19-20.

The complaint asserted damage claims for trespass, unjust enrichment, and slander of title, and sought a declaration that Defendants had no right to use the rights-of-way for nonrailroad purposes and an order that they remove the existing cable. The parties reached a settlement agreement under which class members who do not opt out and submit qualified claims would receive either $0.75 or $1.25 (depending on the history of the title) for each linear foot of affected property.

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854 F.3d 1167, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 23542, 2016 WL 8077930, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fager-v-centurylink-communications-llc-ca10-2016.