Appeals Court Orders Feds To File In Property Rights Case

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit today ordered the United States to respond to a motion by a Wyoming man who seeks to overturn a ruling by a Wyoming federal district court in favor of the U.S. Forest Service in a dispute over whether his land may be used as a federal trail. The order comes one day after the man filed a motion urging the appeals court to reverse a ruling by a three-judge panel. Marvin Brandt of Fox Park, Wyoming, claims title to a railroad right-of-way and a road that accesses his property. The land claimed by the United States was used as a railroad right-of-way from 1904 until 1995, the railroad then abandoned it; all tracks and ties were removed by 2000; thereafter, the Forest Service abandoned what was once a road. The Wyoming court ruled, over Mr. Brandt’s objections, that the Forest Service retained a reversionary interest in the railroad right-of-way pursuant to two federal statutes and that the Forest Service did not abandon the road despite a gate, fence, and trees where the road once was and obliteration of the road. The panel held that it was required by court precedent to uphold the ruling. “This is encouraging news,” said William Perry Pendley, president of Mountain States Legal Foundation (MSLF); MSLF represents Mr. Brandt...more