Recent Development by Warren T. Burns
Illinois Central Railroad Company (Illinois Central) operates a main rail line through Iberville Parish, Louisiana. Approximately one mile west of the Illinois Central line, LBC PetroUnited, Inc. (PetroUnited) owns and operates a chemical storage facility in St. Gabriel, Louisiana. PetroUnited serves numerous chemical producers, permitting the producers to store their products at the St. Gabriel facility until the producers can arrange for shipment elsewhere. Situated on the Mississippi River, the storage facility is currently accessible only by truck and barge traffic. Illinois Central sought to construct a spur from its main line to the PetroUnited facility, thereby affording chemical producers utilizing PetroUnited's services the ability to ship their products by rail. Standing in the railroad company's way were property owners James and Barbara Mayeux.
Illinois Central offered to purchase a servitude over the Mayeuxs' property for the proposed spur. The Mayeuxs refused. Illinois Central then filed a complaint for expropriation in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana. Illinois Central claimed that under Louisiana law it was entitled to expropriate the servitude over the Mayeuxs' property by showing that the proposed spur would serve a public and necessary purpose. The railroad company filed a motion for partial summary judgment, asking the district court to find that it had demonstrated a public and necessary purpose as a matter of law. The district court granted Illinois Central's motion. Following a bench trial at which the district court awarded $180,429 as just compensation for the expropriation, the Mayeuxs appealed, arguing that the proposed spur served neither a public nor a necessary purpose. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that the district court was correct in finding that Illinois Central had demonstrated a public purpose for the proposed spur under Louisiana law, but, in that a genuine factual dispute existed concerning the necessity of the spur, summary judgment was improvidently granted. Illinois Central Railroad Co. v. Mayeux, 301 F.3d 359, 367-69 (5th Cir. 2002).
About the Author
Warren T. Burns.
Citation
77 Tul. L. Rev. 1429 (2003)