SC Ports Authority denies claims in Port Royal railroad lawsuit

Port Royal property owners suing the town and state over rights to a former railroad line have no stake in the property, the S.C. Ports Authority said in a response this month.

Attorneys for property owners along the railroad line south of Ribaut Road filed the lawsuit in December in Beaufort County court. The owners are asking to be paid for the value of rail property they said was intruded upon by plans for the Spanish Moss Trail.

Rights to the railroad property fell to the adjoining property owners when the railroad was abandoned in 2009, the complaint said. Plans to build the Spanish Moss Trail on the property amount to an inverse condemnation — when government intrudes on private property without paying for it, the property owners said in their complaint.

In an answer filed March 11, the Ports Authority said it retained rights to the property when the railroad was abandoned. The agency said it is further protected from claims of trespassing and inverse condemnation by state tort law and the statute of limitations.

Port Royal, in answering the suit in January, said the route for the Spanish Moss Trail south of Ribaut Road has not been decided and that the town and Ports Authority have not entered any agreements related to the location of the trail.

Town manager Van Willis told council members this month he wants the lawsuit thrown out as frivolous.

“This lawsuit has no basis in reality,” Willis told council last week. “It's just utterly ridiculous, and we've made that very clear.”

The former railroad line is part of about 50 acres of Ports Authority property the agency has tried to sell for a decade. Control of the deal is being transferred to the state’s General Services division for auction, the result of state law passed in 2014.

As a result of the impending transfer, the Attorney General’s office is handling the railroad lawsuit. Deputy Solicitor General Emory Smith will defend the Ports Authority, according to court records.

The property transfer had not occurred as of last week. Willis said the Department of Administration is waiting until a qualified appraiser is selected to complete the transfer, as to not start the clock on the required appraisal.

The most recent potential buyers of the port property said the lawsuit placed a presumed cloud on the deal, which fell through in December.

Ports Authority attorney Neil Robinson said in February the lawsuit would not delay the property transfer.

Beaufort attorney Grady Brown and Kansas City attorneys Tom Stewart and Elizabeth McCulley represent the property owners in the right-of-way lawsuit.

Stewart was the lead attorney on a past case involving the railroad line from Port Royal north of Ribaut Road to Yemassee. Property owners in that case earned a $33 million settlement from the federal government in 2013 after arguing easements should have been returned to them when the railroad was abandoned.

This story was originally published March 14, 2016 at 3:18 PM with the headline "SC Ports Authority denies claims in Port Royal railroad lawsuit."