Decades old railroad deal could come back to cost Florida

[CHamilton]

Decades old railroad deal could come back to cost Florida

TALLAHASSEE -- In a case stemming from a 1936 agreement about building a road in then-rural Pasco County, an appeals court Wednesday upheld a ruling that the state Department of Transportation should pay more than $500,000 to CSX Transportation.

The ruling, issued by a divided 2nd District Court of Appeal, centers on what is known as an "indemnity clause" that was included in the agreement to provide legal protections to the railroad. The clause emerged as an issue decades later because of a fatal accident on the now-not-so-rural road.

That accident, which occurred in 2002, led to a lawsuit, and a circuit judge required the Department of Transportation to pay $502,462 to cover CSX's settlement and legal costs.

The agreement is so old that it was entered into by the State Road Department, a predecessor to DOT, and receivers of the Seaboard Air Line Railway --- a CSX predecessor that was in receivership during the Great Depression. The state entered into the agreement because it needed to cross a Seaboard rail line to build the road, which is now State Road 52 in Pasco County.

But a majority of the three-judge panel ruled that the terms of the indemnity clause were still valid.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Decades old railroad deal could come back to cost Florida

TALLAHASSEE -- In a case stemming from a 1936 agreement about building a road in then-rural Pasco County, an appeals court Wednesday upheld a ruling that the state Department of Transportation should pay more than $500,000 to CSX Transportation.

The ruling, issued by a divided 2nd District Court of Appeal, centers on what is known as an "indemnity clause" that was included in the agreement to provide legal protections to the railroad. The clause emerged as an issue decades later because of a fatal accident on the now-not-so-rural road.

That accident, which occurred in 2002, led to a lawsuit, and a circuit judge required the Department of Transportation to pay $502,462 to cover CSX's settlement and legal costs.

The agreement is so old that it was entered into by the State Road Department, a predecessor to DOT, and receivers of the Seaboard Air Line Railway --- a CSX predecessor that was in receivership during the Great Depression. The state entered into the agreement because it needed to cross a Seaboard rail line to build the road, which is now State Road 52 in Pasco County.

But a majority of the three-judge panel ruled that the terms of the indemnity clause were still valid.

Shakespeare was Right! "First we Kill All the Lawyers!"