CSX Transp., Inc. v. City of Sebree
CSX Transp., Inc. v. City of Sebree
Opinion
In 1966, the City of Sebree, Kentucky (the "City") enacted an ordinance requiring CSX Transportation, Inc.'s ("CSX") predecessor to obtain approval from city council before commencing any maintenance or construction project that would result in any change in grade at any of the six railroad crossings in Sebree. After a dispute surrounding the ordinance in 1979, the predecessor railroad company and the City entered into a settlement agreement whereby the rail company agreed not to raise the height of one crossing by more than 0.4 feet and not to raise the height of another crossing at all. In 2017, CSX notified the City of its intent to perform maintenance that would result in raising four of the crossings, which led to the current lawsuit. CSX sought, and the district court granted, a permanent injunction prohibiting the City from enforcing the ordinance or settlement agreement. Because we agree with the district court that both the ordinance and settlement agreement are preempted by federal railroad statutes, we affirm.
I. BACKGROUND
An active railroad line runs through Sebree, a 1.6 square mile city in Webster County, Kentucky. The rail line, operated by CSX, crosses six streets in Sebree: Jefferson, Webster, Main, Dixon, Mill, and Sebree Springs. Each of the crossings is a "peaked" or "humped" crossing, meaning that there is a change in grade from the street to the top of the rails with the railway tracks sitting higher than the road. The height of the crossings has long been a source of concern for the City. According to the City, the elevation of the crossings creates two primary safety concerns: (1) line of sight obstructions for vehicles and pedestrians crossing the tracks, and (2) a risk that low-profile vehicles and vehicles with long wheel bases, such as trucks and buses, will become stuck or disabled. Understandably, the City does not want the height of the crossings to be raised any further.
*281 On May 11, 1966, the City enacted an Ordinance (the "Ordinance") requiring Louisville and Nashville Railroad ("L&N")-CSX's predecessor in interest-to obtain prior approval from the city council before commencing maintenance or construction that would result in any change in grade at any of the crossings in Sebree. The Ordinance imposes a fine of not less than $50.00 per day until the change is corrected.
Despite the Ordinance, L&N raised the crossings at Jefferson and Webster in 1978 without seeking prior approval from the City. The City informed L&N of its intent to enforce the Ordinance if L&N attempted to raise the crossings at Main and Dixon. L&N thereafter filed a lawsuit in the Webster County Circuit Court seeking to invalidate the Ordinance and requesting an injunction preventing the City from enforcing it. The circuit court issued an order in July of 1979, denying L&N's request for an injunction and temporarily enjoining L&N from making any repairs that would raise the elevation of the Main Street or Dixon Street crossings without the approval of Sebree's city council. In November 1979, L&N and the City resolved the litigation by entering an agreed order of dismissal (the "Agreed Order") that removed the temporary injunction against L&N. Pursuant to the Agreed Order, L&N agreed not to raise the level of the tracks at Main Street more than 0.4 feet above its then-current level, and not to raise the level of the tracks at Dixon Street at all.
Years later, CSX, as L&N's successor in interest, determined that it needed to conduct maintenance on the tracks in Sebree to correct the problem of fouled ballast. Ballast refers to the crushed rock used to support tracks and allow proper drainage. The ballast becomes fouled when smaller particles clog the space between the crushed rock, reducing the ability of water to drain freely. There are at least two maintenance methods that can be utilized to correct fouled ballast. One method, surfacing, entails lifting the track, which breaks the bottom of the ties-the supports to which railroad rails are fastened-free from the compacted fouled ballast, and then raising the track to the desired height and forcing ballast back underneath. Another method is undercutting, which is the removal of all ballast between the ties from approximately eight inches under the bottom of the ties. Surfacing results in raising the height of the crossings, but undercutting can be done while maintaining the height of the grade, or even lowering it.
In 2013, CSX began undertaking maintenance work that would result in an increase in the height of four of the railroad crossings in Sebree. Sebree police "arrived on the scene and threat[ened] CSX[ ] personnel with arrest[,]" and CSX was thus "not able to conduct the proposed maintenance that would result in raising the tracks." (Compl., R. 1, PageID 6.) In August 2017, CSX informed the City of its intent to perform track maintenance that would result in raising the crossings at Dixon, Main, Webster, and Jefferson Streets by two to three inches. CSX also informed the City of its intent to perform additional work at the Jefferson Street crossing, which would not raise the grade of the crossing. In October 2017, the Sebree city council met to discuss CSX's proposed track maintenance and voted 6-0 to deny CSX's request to perform any of the proposed maintenance work.
After the request to perform maintenance was denied, CSX brought this action for injunctive relief in the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. CSX sought a preliminary injunction, seeking to prohibit the City from enforcing the Ordinance or the Agreed *282 Order, or otherwise interfering with CSX's railroad operations. The district court combined the hearing on the preliminary injunction with a trial on the merits, and the proceeding was held on March 1, 2018.
On May 24, 2018, the district court issued an opinion, holding that the Ordinance was preempted by the Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act ("Termination Act"), and the Agreed Order was void as a matter of public policy. The court entered judgment in favor of CSX and permanently enjoined the City from "any enforcement of either the 1966 Ordinance or 1979 Agreed Order or otherwise undertaking any action which would seek to prevent CSX from raising its tracks for maintenance purposes within the City of Sebree." (J., R. 26, PageID 641.)
The City timely appealed.
II. ANALYSIS
A. Standard of Review
In reviewing a decision to grant or deny a motion for a permanent injunction, "we employ several different standards of review. 'Factual findings are reviewed under the clearly erroneous standard, legal conclusions are reviewed de novo, and the scope of injunctive relief is reviewed for an abuse of discretion.' "
Sec'y of Labor, U.S. Dep't of Labor v. 3Re.com, Inc.
,
B. Ordinance
We must first determine whether the Ordinance is preempted by federal laws governing railroad transportation. "Under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, federal law preempts conflicting state law."
Tyrrell v. Norfolk S. Ry. Co.
,
Two federal statutes that govern the railroad industry possibly preempt the Ordinance: (1) the Termination Act; and (2) the Federal Railroad Safety Act ("FRSA"). We begin, as the district court did, with an analysis of whether the Ordinance is preempted under the Termination Act. Congress enacted the Termination Act in 1995, establishing the Surface Transportation Board ("STB") and giving the STB exclusive jurisdiction over certain aspects of railroad transportation.
The jurisdiction of the [STB] over-
(1) transportation by rail carriers, and the remedies provided in this part with respect to rates, classifications, *283 rules (including car service, interchange, and other operating rules), practices, routes, services, and facilities of such carriers; and
(2) the construction, acquisition, operation, abandonment, or discontinuance of spur, industrial, team, switching, or side tracks, or facilities, even if the tracks are located, or intended to be located, entirely in one State,
is exclusive.
Except as otherwise provided in this part, the remedies provided under this part with respect to regulation of rail transportation are exclusive and preempt the remedies provided under Federal or State law.
" 'It is difficult to imagine a broader statement of Congress'[s] intent to preempt state regulatory authority over railroad operations.' "
CSX Transp., Inc.
, Fin. Docket No. 34662,
We have adopted the STB's " 'comprehensive test for determining the extent to which a particular state action or remedy is preempted by § 10501(b).' "
CSX argues that the Ordinance is categorically preempted, while the City urges us to conduct only the as-applied preemption analysis. Even under the as-applied analysis, we hold that the Ordinance is preempted by the Termination Act.
A regulation is permissible as applied so long as "(1) it is not unreasonably burdensome, and (2) it does not discriminate against railroads."
Id.
at 541 (quoting
Jackson
,
Here, the Ordinance is not settled and definite enough to avoid open-ended delays, and it could easily be used as a pretext for interfering with rail service. The Ordinance states that, "before any change in grade is made by the ... Railroad at any of the street crossings in the City[,] there first shall be filed with the City Clerk an application to the City Council setting out such change in grade and approval of the City Council ... must be secured before commencing construction." (Ordinance, R. 1-1, PageID 12.) The Ordinance does not contain any standards cabining the city council's discretion, nor any restrictions on how long the city council could take to decide whether to allow CSX to conduct necessary maintenance or construction. The Ordinance could thus be used to deny CSX the ability to conduct its preferred method of maintenance both pretextually and indefinitely. Indeed, the Ordinance was used to deny CSX the ability to conduct maintenance-even the maintenance at Jefferson Street that would not have raised the grade of the crossing.
Such an open-ended regulation is prohibited by the Termination Act.
See
Jackson
,
The Ordinance is preempted as applied for a second reason as well: forcing CSX to use certain maintenance methods imposes an unreasonable burden on CSX. Neither party disputes that maintenance is necessary to correct fouled ballast. Instead, the battle is over which method should be used. The City contends that, because CSX can still perform track maintenance using methods that do not raise the crossings, such as undercutting, the Ordinance is not unreasonably burdensome, and therefore not preempted as applied. In support, the City points to testimony from its expert, who stated that undercutting is a better long-term solution because it actually corrects the problem of fouled ballast by removing it, rather than applying a "band-aid" approach of raising the tracks, which needs to be done every five to seven years. And the City correctly
*285
notes that increased costs to the railroad are not enough to constitute an unreasonable burden.
See
Blissfield
,
But undercutting causes more of a burden than merely increasing costs. According to testimony provided by CSX's expert, undercutting presents a safety hazard because it threatens the structural integrity of the track. (
See
Hr'g Tr., R. 19, PageID 400 ("From a railroad perspective, undercutting is the last option that we want to do ... because it, in fact, greatly weakens the track structure.");
Finally, the Ordinance "amount[s] to impermissible [local] regulation of [CSX's] operations by interfering with the railroad's ability to uniformly design, construct, maintain, and repair its railroad line."
Thomas Tubbs
, No. 35792,
Still, the City argues that the Ordinance is expressly permitted by the FRSA's savings clause and cannot therefore be preempted by the Termination Act. But the FRSA does not save the Ordinance from preemption for one simple reason: we have held that the FRSA's savings clause only applies to
state
regulations and cannot save any
municipal
regulations.
See
CSX Transp., Inc. v. City of Plymouth
,
We note that
Tyrrell
suggests that if a regulation has a connection with rail safety then the "FRSA provides the applicable standard for assessing federal preemption."
Additionally,
C. Agreed Order
Having concluded that the Ordinance is preempted, we must next decide whether the Agreed Order is preempted. Like the Ordinance, the Agreed Order unreasonably interferes with rail transportation because it directs CSX to use a certain maintenance method (despite the safety hazards associated with that method), and it covers a subject substantially subsumed by federal regulations. The City argues that CSX cannot use the Termination Act to avoid its obligations under the Agreed Order. We generally agree that contracts that were "freely negotiated between sophisticated business parties" should not be easily set aside, as they "reflect a market calculation" that the benefits of the agreement outweigh the costs.
See
PCS Phosphate Co. v. Norfolk S. Corp.
,
But the circumstances presented in this case convince us that the Agreed Order constitutes an unreasonable interference with rail transportation and is thus void. The Agreed Order was entered into in 1979, over fifteen years before the Termination Act was enacted. And CSX presented evidence that circumstances have materially changed since the agreement was voluntarily entered into by its predecessor: train loads are heavier and trains are faster now than they were back then, and the rails in Sebree are now "welded rails" as opposed to "jointed rails." (Hr'g Tr., R. 19, PageID 432.) CSX's expert testified that these changes "greatly raise[ ] the risk of buckled track derailments" by "decrease[ing the] track structure that holds the track in line." (
Id.
) Thus, CSX's ability to perform undercutting, as opposed to surfacing, is "greatly different" today than when the Agreed Order was signed. (
Id.
) We thus conclude that the Agreed Order is preempted under the Termination Act and therefore void as against public policy.
See
R.R. Ventures
, Fin. Docket No. 33385,
The City points to two cases in an attempt to persuade us otherwise: (1)
*287
Township of Woodbridge, et al. v. Consolidated Rail Corp.
,
D. Scope of the Injunction
The only remaining question is whether the scope of the injunction is impermissibly broad. Even assuming the City did not waive this objection, as CSX argues, we conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in setting the scope of the injunction. The district court entered judgment in favor of CSX and permanently enjoined the City from "any enforcement of either the 1966 Ordinance or 1979 Agreed Order
or otherwise undertaking any action which would seek to prevent CSX[ ] from raising its tracks for maintenance purposes within the City of Sebree
." (J., R. 26, PageID 641) (emphasis added.) The City objects to the italicized portion of the judgment, arguing that the injunctive relief should be limited to the City's enforcement of the Ordinance and the Agreed Order. The City cites only one case, standing for the proposition that a "district court should limit the scope of the injunction to the conduct 'which has been found to have been pursued or is related to the proven unlawful conduct.' "
Howe v. City of Akron
,
But the scope of the injunction here is "sufficiently tailored to the ... district court's findings ...." Id. at 755. The district court found that the Ordinance and the Agreed Order were preempted because they unreasonably interfered with CSX's ability to maintain its tracks. Any action that would seek to prevent CSX from raising its tracks for maintenance purposes would also unreasonably interfere with the railroad's ability to maintain its tracks. The district court did not abuse its discretion in prohibiting such conduct.
III. CONCLUSION
We affirm the judgment of the district court.
We note that the parties discuss
Green Mountain
and related arguments in the context of whether the Ordinance is preempted under the categorical approach, but in
Blissfield
, we considered the concerns articulated in
Green Mountain
in our analysis of whether a regulation was preempted as applied. Thus, we do so here as well.
Blissfield
,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- CSX TRANSPORTATION, INC., Plaintiff-Appellee, v. CITY OF SEBREE, KENTUCKY, Defendant-Appellant.
- Cited By
- 22 cases
- Status
- Published