Judge rules Georgia railroad can seize land as landowners vow to fight
A judge has ruled that a Georgia railroad can buy land against the will of property owners to build a track
ATLANTA — A judge has ruled that a Georgia railroad can buy land against the will of property owners to build a track, rebuffing a challenge that a libertarian group hoped could make it harder to use eminent domain to take property.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Craig Schwall Sr. ruled Tuesday that the Sandersville Railroad could condemn a 200-foot (60-meter) wide strip of property running 4.5 miles (7.3 kilometers) to build a rail line serving a rock quarry and other users. Landowners fighting the railroad had appealed a Georgia Public Service Commission ruling allowing the land taking.
Schwall kept a freeze on construction for now, with landowners saying they would appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court.
The case matters because private entities need to condemn private land for railroads and facilities including pipelines and electric transmission lines.
The Sandersville Railroad, owned by an influential Georgia family, wants to connect the quarry to the CSX railroad at Sparta, allowing products to be shipped widely. Sparta is a mostly Black rural town about 85 miles (135 kilometers) southeast of Atlanta in one of Georgia's poorest counties.
Sandersville has agreements to buy some of the 18 parcels it needs. But other owners say losing a strip of property would spoil land they treasure, and that some families have owned for a century.
“Every day that Sandersville isn’t coming onto our land and starting to build is a good day,” Diane Smith, one of the owners, said in a statement. “But we won’t rest easy until we know for sure that they’ll never be able to take our land from us.”
Brian Brodrick, a lawyer for
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