Bulletin: WA000026

Dear Associates:

We have yet another question of title to an abandoned railroad right of way. Harris v. Ski Park Farms, Inc., 814 P.2d 684 (Wash. App. 1991). This case dealt with the railroad's title to a reserved right of way within an 1864 section land grant.

In this case Northern Pacific Railroad acquired fee title to the section by land grant. In 1874 it conveyed the section to an individual "reserving and excepting, however, from the above described premises, a strip of land two hundred feet wide...".

One hundred and ten years later the railroad abandoned this right of way. It was apparently agreed to by the litigants in this case that the federal abandonment statute, 43. U.S.C. Sec 912, applied to this right of way. The court interpreted that statute to vest title to the abandoned right of way in the owner of the "legal subdivision or subdivisions traversed or occupied by such railroad," i.e. the adjoining property owner at the time of abandonment. Title did not vest in the railroad.

Once again be very careful of titles to abandoned railroad rights of way. It is usually not possible for us to determine that title without a court order.