(The Associated Press circulated the following on November 21, 2009.)
FORT WORTH, Texas — A spokeswoman for BNSF Railway Co. says a federal court has largely resolved accusations by Montana’s attorney general that the company broke a grain shipping agreement with a state-backed rail line.
Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock sued the railway in state district court in Fergus County last week. The suit claims BNSF violated a 1984 agreement when it stopped making payments earlier this month to cover some grain shipping costs in central Montana.
Court documents from a 2005 U.S. District Court case over the same issue indicate BNSF’s move to cancel its payments was approved by a court-approved arbitration panel in May.
BNSF spokeswoman Suann Lundsberg says another issue raised in the state’s lawsuit – the construction of a grain unloading facility in Moccasin, Mont. – is still pending in the federal case.