In a unanimous decision rendered this week, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected a railroad company’s attempts to use eminent domain authority to take less than an acre of a couple’s private land, concluding the company’s taking wasn’t for a public purpose.
In a Tuesday decision, authored by Justice Kevin M. Dougherty, the court sided with the Reading, Pennsylvania, property owners, Gary D. Wolfe and Mary O. Wolfe, concluding the appellate court incorrectly reversed the trial court’s finding that Reading Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad Co.’s taking at issue was for a private purpose to benefit a business. The Wolfes argued the three-judge appellate panel erroneously relied on century-old case law that no longer reflected eminent powers limitations or protections against condemnations made for a private purpose.
