Here’s the third and final amicus brief supporting the petitioner in Marvin M. Brandt Revocable Trust v. United States, No. 12-1173 (cert. petition filed Mar. 22, 2013). The Pacific Legal Foundation brief argues:
This case raises important questions regarding the common law of property ownership and the certainty of titles in property.
. . . .
As fully set out in the Petition, the Tenth Circuit’s rule directly conflicts with decisions of this Court as well as decisions from the Federal Circuit, the Court of Federal Claims, and the Seventh Circuit. Pet. at 17-34. The split of authority regarding ownership of abandoned railroad rights-of-way has been growing for years, and is well-documented. See, e.g., Pet. Cert. App. at 5-6, 22-24 (discussing split of authority); Hash v. United States, 403 F.3d 1308, 1318 (Fed. Cir. 2005) (same); 11 Powell on Real Property § 78A (referring to the existing split of authority as a “mess [that] is not entirely fixed” and in need of “thorough analysis”); Roger Cunningham, et al., The Law of Property § 8.9, p. 460 (2d ed. 1993) (decisions concerning railroad rights-of-way “are in considerable disarray”). Amicus PLF urges the Court to grant the Petition to resolve this conflict, especially because the Tenth Circuit’s rule departs from ordinary understandings of property ownership. … If left unreviewed, the decision below will unsettle the rights and expectations of thousands of property owners within the Circuit and nationwide.
Br. at 2-3.
The brief by the Cato Institute and the National Association of Reversionary Property Owners is posted here, and the brief we filed on behalf of Owners’ Counsel of America is here. The cert petition is posted here.