Nearly 300 Southern Indiana residents are eligible for compensation through a class action lawsuit related to the Monon South Trail. Brooke McAfee | News and Tribune
SOUTHERN INDIANA — Nearly 300 Southern Indiana residents can receive compensation through a class action lawsuit related to the Monon South Trail.
Last week, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana granted law firm Lewis Rice’s motion for a class certification on behalf of residents whose land was acquired for the regional trail, according to a Monday news release.
The case involved a lawsuit against the federal government.
Attorneys Lindsay Brinton and Meghan Largent with Lewis Rice’s Federal Takings & Rails to Trails Practice Group filed the motion for class certification, which allows the landowners to be paid.
According to Brinton, eligible landowners who have not already been paid will automatically be included in the lawsuit unless they opt out.
“The landowners that will be included through this class certification will receive a maximum of $10,000 per claim,” she said. “So if they have multiple properties, they can receive $10,000 for each one, but each claim is limited in this class action...to $10,000, but they will also be entitled to reimbursement of the attorney fees and expenses we incur on their behalf.”
The Monon South Trail will stretch about 63 miles, spanning from New Albany and going north past Mitchell.
“Under Indiana law, the vast majority of this right-of-way was created by easement, which meant the railroad had the right to run trains up and down this line and to continue using it for that purpose, but that purpose did not include recreational trail use,” Brinton said.
When CSX abandoned the right-ofway and stopped using the railway, it “sought out several different trail sponsors to then sell the line to the trail sponsors.”
The City of New Albany, Radius Indiana and the Indiana Trails Fund have been involved in the rails-to-trails conversion effort.
The City of New Albany and Radius Indiana are currently in the process of developing the regional trail.
The National Trail Systems Act allows this type of conversion for use that “wouldn’t otherwise be authorized under Indiana law,” Brinton said.
“So it’s a federal law that preempts state law and essentially states, notwithstanding your state law rights, we’re going to allow this sale to happen,” she said.
“So that order allowing this conversion was issued in February of 2018, and after that time, we filed a series of different lawsuits against the federal government so the landowners could be paid the just compensation they’re entitled to.”
Landowners originally had until February of 2024 to file a claim for compensation, but Lewis Rice filed the motion for class certification before the six-year statute of limitations ran out.
“So we asked the court, the Southern District of Indiana, to certify this case...as a class action under Indiana law,” Brinton said. “And what that means is that for all of the approximately 280 landowners who had not yet been paid the just compensation for this taking, they could be included by nature of this class action lawsuit.”
Brinton described this as a “landmark decision, as a class certification for a rails to trails case has not been certified by a district court in more than 20 years.”
Those eligible can receive the compensation even if they did not receive prior notification from the federal government of the taking of the property, she said.
“We are pleased to be able to give hundreds more landowners the opportunity to obtain the just compensation that the federal government owes them,” Brinton said.
To be eligible, people have to be property owners as of February 2018.
“As long as they owned at that date that there was this project, they are entitled to that compensation, Brinton said.
The law firm will be providing the information about compensation to the eligible property owners.
“And if anyone has questions, we welcome them to reach out to us and contact us with any questions or concerns,” Brinton said.
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