Whispell Foreign Cars, Inc. v. United States

106 Fed. Cl. 777, 2012 U.S. Claims LEXIS 1038, 2012 WL 3779633
United States Court of Federal Claims·Decided August 30, 2012·No. No. 09-315 L·Published·Cited by 8 cases

Opinion

OPINION

HEWITT, Chief Judge.

I. Introduction

This is a rails-to-trails case involving segments of a rail corridor located in St. Peters-burg, Florida. This opinion addresses whether, based on the absence of a genuine issue of material fact, defendant is entitled to summary judgment that segments of the corridor were adversely possessed by Tampa & Gulf Coast Railroad (individually and/or collectively with its successors, as the context requires, Tampa & Gulf Coast), precluding the takings claims of plaintiffs Jesse and Virginia Abrams (Abrams) and Bama Sea Products, Inc. (Bama Sea). The court also considers whether plaintiffs’ request for reconsideration of a prior opinion should be granted.

Before the court are the United States’ Motion for Summary Judgment with Respect to the Abrams and Bama Sea Properties and Memorandum in Support1 (defendant’s Motion or Def.’s Mot.), Docket Number (Dkt. No.) 112, filed November 9, 2011; Plaintiffs’ Opposition to the United States’ Motion for Summary Judgment with Respect to the Abrams and Bama Sea Products Properties (plaintiffs’ Response or Pis.’ Resp.), Dkt. No. 153, filed May 30, 2012; and the United States’ Reply in Support of Motion for Partial Summary Judgment on the Abrams and Bama Sea Properties (defendant’s Reply or Def.’s Reply), Dkt. No. 159, filed July 6, 2012.

II. Background

A. The Trails Act Amendments and the Takings Clause

The National Trails System Act Amendments of 1983 (the Trails Act Amendments), Pub.L. No. 98-11, 97 Stat. 42, to the National Trails System Act, Pub.L. No. 90-543, 82 Stat. 919 (1968) (codified as amended at 16 U.S.C. § 1241 (2006)), authorized the Interstate Commerce Commission to “preserve shrinking rail trackage by converting unused rights-of-way to recreational trails.” Pre-semilt v. Interstate Commerce Comm’n (Preseault I), 494 U.S. 1, 5, 110 S.Ct. 914, 108 L.Ed.2d 1 (1990).2 The Trails Act Amend[780]*780ments operate to prevent a railroad from abandoning existing rail tracks, Whispell Foreign Cars, Inc. v. United States, 106 Fed.Cl. 635, 640-41 (2012), with the result that a Fifth Amendment taking may occur if a “[notice of interim trail use (NITU) ] is issued and state law reversionary interests that would otherwise take effect pursuant to normal abandonment proceedings are forestalled,” Caldwell v. United States, 391 F.3d 1226, 1236 (Fed.Cir.2004).

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has set forth a three-part inquiry to guide the resolution of a plaintiffs takings claim in a rails-to-trails case:

(1) who owned the strips of land involved, specifically did the Railroad ... acquire only easements, or did it obtain fee simple estates; (2) if the Railroad acquired only easements, were the terms of the easements limited to use for railroad purposes, or did they include future use as public recreational trails; and (3) even if the grants of the Railroad’s easements were broad enough to encompass recreational trails, had these easements terminated pri- or to the alleged taking so that the property owners at that time held fee simples unencumbered by the easements.

Preseault v. United States (Preseault II), 100 F.3d 1525, 1533 (Fed.Cir.1996).

Defendant’s Motion, and therefore most of the court’s opinion, addresses the first inquiry: whether or not the railroad acquired fee simple title to properties claimed to be owned by the Abrams and Bama Sea plaintiffs. See Def.’s Mot. 1-17. The opinion also addresses whether or not, at plaintiffs’ request, the court should reconsider its conclusion in Whispell Foreign Cars, Inc. v. United States (Whispell III), 100 Fed.Cl. 529, 542-45 (2011), that a railroad, by satisfying Florida’s requirements for adverse possession, may obtain fee simple title by adverse possession.

B. Procedural History

In its first opinion in this case, issued in February 2011, this court ruled that four conveyances to Tampa & Gulf Coast granted fee simple title to the railroad and, on this ground, denied the takings claims of thirteen plaintiffs, including Bama Sea. Whispell Foreign Cars, Inc. v. United States (Whispell I), 97 Fed.Cl. 324, 326-27 (2011). With respect to the takings claim of the Abrams plaintiffs, the court found that a genuine issue of material fact precluded summary judgment and stated that “the evidence does not permit the court to determine whether [Tampa & Gulf Coast] held title to the property adjacent to the property of ... [the] Abrams.” Id. at 327 n. 2.

Five plaintiffs subsequently filed a motion for reconsideration requesting the court to reconsider its dismissal of their claims. Whispell Foreign Cars, Inc. v. United States (Whispell II), 98 Fed.Cl. 532, 533 (2011). The parties stipulated to the conveyances (or lack thereof) relevant to each of the five properties, Parties’ Joint Stipulation in Resp. to This Ct.’s June 7, 2011 Order, Dkt. No. 83, at 1-2, and, on reconsideration, most of the claims dismissed by the court in its February 2011 opinion were unaffected, Whispell III, 100 Fed.Cl. at 535-36.

However, in the court’s opinion on reconsideration, the court addressed for the first time two issues relevant to the claims by plaintiffs Abrams and Bama Sea: 1) “whether, as a matter of law, a railroad could obtain fee simple title by adverse possession under Florida law,” id. at 542, and 2) “whether Tampa & Gulf Coast met the requirements under Florida law for acquiring fee title to the [Abrams and Bama Sea] segment without a recorded conveyance by adverse possession,” id. at 545. The court answered the first question in the affirmative, finding the guidance provided by the Supreme Court of Florida, the District Court of Appeal of Florida for the First District and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit persuasive. Id. at 542-45 (citing Dunscombe v. Loftin, 154 F.2d 963 (5th Cir.1946), Seaboard Air Line Ry. Co. v. Atl. Coast Line R. Co., 117 Fla. 810, 158 So. 459 (1935) and Tassapoulos v. Seaboard Coastline R.R. Co., [781]*781353 So.2d 867 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.1977)). The court then found that “[n]either party ha[d] set forth sufficient evidence on the issue of adverse possession” to permit the court to decide whether Tampa & Gulf Coast acquired title to the Abrams and Bama Sea segments by adverse possession. Id. at 545-46.

Defendant now moves for summary judgment that plaintiffs Abrams and Bama Sea cannot maintain their takings claims because Tampa & Gulf Coast had acquired fee simple title to the relevant segments of the rail corridor by adverse possession. Def.’s Mot. 1-2. Plaintiffs oppose defendant’s Motion and request that the court reconsider its ruling in Whispell III that a railroad may obtain fee title by adverse possession if it satisfies Florida’s adverse possession requirements. Pis.’ Resp. 1-2,10-13.

III. Legal Standards

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Whispell Foreign Cars, Inc. v. United States, 106 Fed. Cl. 777, 2012 U.S. Claims LEXIS 1038, 2012 WL 3779633 (uscfc 2012).

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