INDIANA – Lindsay Brinton and Meghan Largent, attorneys from Lewis Rice’s Federal Takings & Rails to Trails Practice Group, recently won more than $220,000 in compensation for eight landowners in Southern Indiana.
These landowners brought takings claims against the federal government for the taking of their property for the Monon South Trail, a recreational hiking and biking trail that crossed or trespassed on the landowners’ property.
The City of New Albany, Indiana, and the Indiana Trails Fund started the process of turning the 62.3-mile railroad segment that runs between New Albany and Bedford, Indiana, through Floyd, Clark, Washington,
Lawrence and Orange counties into a hiking and biking path in 2018.
Landowners’ property underlying the railroad easement was seized under the National Trails System Act, which authorized the conversion of abandoned railroad lines into public parks.
Over the years, many of these landowners have presented their claims in a series of cases, including this one, Kay v. United States. The remaining cases—Cessna v. United States, Popp v. United States, and Lawrence County v. United States—have all been settled.
Those landowners are expected to receive compensation from the federal government later this year.
“We are pleased to have been able to obtain the just compensation that the federal government owes to these eight landowners,” Brinton said. “We look forward to seeing the plaintiffs we represent in three other cases related to the Monon South Trail receive what they are entitled to soon.”
