Trains, Trails and Property Law: Indiana Law and the Rails-to-Trails Controversy

Abstract

The Indiana Supreme Court spent much of its time in 1997 focused on issues other than property disputes. Only a small handful of property cases came out of the high court this past year, and they were principally concerned with arcane rules of deed construction in abandoned railroad corridors. Not surprisingly, however, this is a topic that has generated strong feelings on all sides of the issue, as Indiana is only lately getting on the rails-to-trails bandwagon. The supreme court decided four major cases in this area, two of which had been on petition to transfer for almost two years. Unfortunately, the first three of these cases are subject to some questionable reasoning and consequently provide confusing precedents to lower courts which may result in further litigation before these rails-to-trails cases finally can be put to rest. The fourth, however, is a lengthy analysis of the increasingly important issue of deed interpretation and provides helpful guidance for lower courts.

Keywords: interpretation,unfortunately,increasingly, consequently, questionable, surprisingly, construction, introduction, corporation, principally