House Bill 1283

Chairman: Wendell Willard

Committee: Judiciary Civil

House Sponsor: David Ralston

Chairman Willard’s opinion of this legislation:

HB 1283 addresses boundary lines and other real estate interests relating to railroad right-of-ways.  Section 2 enacts a rebuttable presumption that ingress and egress paths within a railroad right-of-way are used with the permission of the railroad company, which would decrease the ability of a party to assert an adverse possession claim against a railroad company.  Sections 3-6 recognize railroad right-of-ways depicted on an Interstate Commerce Commission railroad map dated 1913, and requires railroad companies to record official maps of their rights-of-way in county real estate records in the counties in which their rights-of-way are located.  Section 3 defines right-of-ways, Section 4 defines possession to include vacant buffer land, Section 5 provides that railroads are in possession of right-of-ways depicted on the maps outlined in the bill, and Section 6 provides that courts can take judicial notice of the maps outlined in the bill.

This bill comes to the House Floor under the Open Rule.

Further Action

The House agreed to the Senate Substitute which added language about the conveyance of future interests and estates (Section 3) and claims of aboveground utilities (Section 4). The bill was signed by the Governor.