shuford@cs.utk.edu (Richard Shuford) (02/17/91)
[From _The_Knoxville_News-Sentinel_, Thursday, 14 February A.D. 1991, p. A3.]
[reproduced under copyright doctrine of "fair use"]
Sprint Compensation Ruling Is Overturned
by Skip Lackey
The [Tennessee] Court of Appeals has overturned an Anderson County
Chancery Court ruling that would have let U.S. Sprint Communications
install a fiber-optic network on private property without compensating
landowners.
John B. Rayson, attorney for U.S. Sprint in Knoxville, said Wednesday
he will likely appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court. Donald
K. Vowell, Knoxville attorney for the plaintiffs, said a statewide
class- action lawsuit could give thousands of Tennessee landowners
millions of dollars in damages.
Court documents state that in 1988 U.S. Sprint constructed an under-
ground fiber-optic cable network across the Southeast, burying it
about 42 inches underground within a railway company's right of way.
Court documents state that, in Tennessee, the network runs along 230
miles of railway easements from Crossville to the eastern border of
Tennessee. Documents also state that U.S. Sprint agreed to pay
Norfolk Southern Railway Company and Southern Railway Company for use
of the easements at a cost of $1200 per mile per year for 25 years.
The agreement left some Anderson County landowners without
compensation. They filed a class-action lawsuit against U.S. Sprint.
Appeals Judges William H. Inman, Clifford E. Sanders, and Don T.
McMurray agreed that the railway companies had the right to grant U.S.
Sprint a license to use the easements that run along private property.
The judges said that the railway companies own the easements, but they
do not own the underlying property, the documents state. Therefore,
the railway companies did not have the right to grant the use of the
underlying property that belongs to the landowners, the judges said.
Furthermore, the installation of an underground telecommunications
network was an additional burden on the plaintiffs' property to the
detriment of the landowners, court documents state.
The Appeals Court ruling sends the lawsuit back to Anderson County
where a chancellor must determine if the matter can be certified as a
class-action lawsuit. The chancellor must also decide damages.
[Although its county seat is Clinton, Anderson County's best known
municipality is Oak Ridge.]
Richard S. Shuford shuford@cs.utk.edu BIX: richard