(The Associated Press circulated the following article on March 8.)
GILLETTE, Wyo. — A judge has ordered landowners to provide access for the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad to survey their property for a planned rail line.
“These matters were written in stone before the doors to the courtroom opened in this case,” District Court Judge Michael “Nick” Deegan said in ruling Tuesday.
The railroad sued Lenard Seeley and Jerry Dilts for permission to survey land they own in Campbell, Converse and Weston counties. The surveys are in preparation for a $6 billion rail line for exporting coal from the Powder River Basin.
The surveys could be a step toward the railroad using eminent domain to obtain the land.
The landowners said they didn’t want to deal with the railroad until they could be more certain that the project would go ahead. But Rachel Yates, a lawyer for the DM&E, said the court needed to focus on whether the surveys were required and whether the railroad made reasonable attempts to negotiate with the landowners.
There was little disagreement about whether the surveys are required. But Tad Daly, the landowners’ lawyer, said the railroad was lax in negotiating. He said the railroad never provided full details about all the surveys it wanted to do.
“We would say ‘sign our agreement or else’ is not reasonable,” he said.
Yates said that once a landowner refused one of the surveys, the railroad assumed that the landowner intended to refuse all surveys.
Deegan said he sympathized with the landowners but was bound by state law.
“The bar to entry is very low in this state,” Deegan said. “Now, the bar to condemnation is significantly higher. That battle, if it emerges, is for another day.”
He ordered the landowners to allow the required surveys within the next six months.