1 of 2 MKT Bridge lawsuits dismissed

According to a Columbia Missourian article:

One of two lawsuits filed in the fight over the Katy Bridge in Boonville has been permanently side railed after the Missouri Western District Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling Tuesday.

The lawsuit, filed by Ken Midkiff, the Missouri Sierra Club Conservation chairman, was dismissed by a Cole County Circuit Court judge in July 2006. The appeals court heard the appeal of the dismissal on April 5 and handed down its ruling without comment Tuesday. The appellate court upheld the lower court’s ruling unanimously.

Midkiff’s suit sought to keep the railroad from taking control of the bridge — also known as the Boonville Lift Bridge­ — and dismantling it. Six months before Midkiff filed his lawsuit, Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon filed a similar case against the Natural Resources Department and the railroad.

“What the court was looking at in the Midkiff case was whether the parties had standing to sue and whether this case could go forward with the attorney general’s case still going on,” said Bruce Morrison, Midkiff’s attorney. Morrison said his clients have filed friend-of-the-court briefs in Nixon’s case.

The Department of Natural Resources and Union Pacific both claim that the railroad company owns the bridge. Nixon and Midkiff claim the Rails to Trails Interim Use Agreement, which made the bridge part of the Katy Trail State Park, give the state a compelling interest in the bridge’s preservation.

The interest of Katy Trail supporters in this case is that removing the Boonville Bridge, without taking the proper legal steps to preserve the rail corridor (which have not yet been take), will endanger the legal status of a long stretch of the Katy Trail.