Rails To Trails Defeat In Preble County, Ohio

Beisner vs. Board of Preble County, Ohio, Commissioners

The stamp on the page reads; 2009 JUL  15  AM 8:36, the Case No. 08-CV-027327.  With that stamp the prospects of the planned route of the Cardinal Trail stretching not only across northern Preble County but also into Darke County faded.  With Preble County’s third defeat by citizens in as many tries the pieces can no longer connect. Three families have back what they claimed all along to be theirs, the abandoned railroad bed that Preble County purchased from DP&L.  With respect to these three cases, Preble County had just as much claim as if it had purchased the Brooklyn Bridge from a fast talking salesman.

On Friday, July 24, 2009 Paul Beisner dropped of copies of documents pertaining to the case to me. The case has gone largely uncovered in local media.  It deserves some coverage; previous stories on this site have been picked up by other websites. The hope is that others facing a similar issue will find this case and have a possible road map for defense.  Paul’s attorney was Jill E. Hittle and he highly recommends her.  The document is provided in .pdf format here.

The Preble County Board of County Commissioners had claimed an “interest in the property by virtue of a Quit-claim deed from Consolidated Rail Corporation, to The Dayton Power and Light Company dating 4/27/93 and filed 11/14/95 at 4:24 p.m., recorded in Deed Book Volume 387, Page 420, Recorder’s Office, Preble County, Ohio. These deeds contained invalid legal descriptions for the property being conveyed, describing the property only by parcel numbers and Railroad Mile Posts and Secondary Lines.  Plaintiffs’ chain of title, however, contained no deed to Consolidated Rail Corporation, but contained the two right-of- ways:”

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The Court found:

“The allegations of the Plaintiffs’ Complaint are true;

Defendants, Board of County Commissioners, Commissioners, Preble County, Ohio, et al. have no estate in, and are not entitles to possession of, the Property;

Plaintiffs are entitled to have the title to and possession of the Property quieted as against Defendants, Board of County Commissioners, Preble County, Ohio, et.al. as prayed for in Complaint.

…Commissioners, Preble County, Ohio and all persons claiming under them, are forever bared from setting up any claim to the property, or any part of the Property, adverse to title and possession of Plaintiffs, their heirs and assigns…

The Beisners were the beneficiaries of an easement granted by a previous owner. “The right-of-way granted in Preble County Deed Book 57, Page 99, contains classic reverter language, “to have and to hold with them and their successors and assigns forever, hereby covenanting with the said rail way co and their assigns that they shall have free and uninterrupted use of the same for the purposes aforesaid and that I and my heirs will keep the same and all land above described well and properly fenced and protected from any adjoin lands so long as the same  may be used for the purposes of a railroad.”

The case provided evidence that showed that “in approximately 1978, the railroad removed its railroad rails and cross ties from the property in question, and ceased operations through the property.”