(The following story by James Quirk Jr. appeared on the Hawk Eye website on April 2.)
BURLINGTON, Iowa — The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway has until 5 p.m. today to respond to a lawsuit filed against it March 4 by the city of Burlington.
It’s unclear, however, where BNSF will respond to the suit.
City Attorney Scott Power said Thursday the railroad may file a petition to remove the suit from Des Moines County District Court where the city filed the action, or it may file its response in the U.S. District Court in Davenport in an attempt to take it to a federal court level.
“This is a case where it’s really hard to predict what will happen,” Power said, adding there may be “a lot of legal maneuvering” before it finally ends up in a trial.
The lawsuit alleges BNSF breached a 146–year–old contract by deciding to move local shops jobs out of town.
The railroad eliminated nearly 260 local positions in January 2003 and recently moved 93 other positions to Topeka, Kan., and Galesburg, Ill. There are only 44 local BNSF jobs remaining.
The 1858 agreement, however, stipulates the railroad could use riverfront property for its operations as long it maintains its principal shops in the city.
City officials hope the court agrees that the contract was breached and orders BNSF to begin compensating the city for using the riverfront property.
Mayor Mike Edwards said city officials hope the compensation will be so high that BNSF finds it more lucrative to honor the original agreement and return its principal shops to the city.
Power said there’s a possibility the BNSF response to the lawsuit won’t be available to city officials until Friday or even next week.
As long as the response has an April 1 postmark, it will be considered filed on time by the court, he said.