EOG Resources, Inc. v. Soo Line Railroad Co.

[¶ 53] I respectfully dissent.

[¶ 54] A hundred years ago, when the railroad sought the legal right to cross their land in Mountrail County, some landowners gave deeds to the railroad in lieu of condemnation. We are asked to decide whether the railroad actually took greater property rights from those landowners than it took from condemnation or from the federal government deeds. For its rights-of-way from condemnation and from the federal government, the railroad received only an easement. There is compelling law and fact on which to conclude the railroad took through those deeds from private…