Georgia court says railroad can take family land

It sounds like something out of the days of the robber barons, but it is a modern reality for four families in Georgia. A railroad wants to take their land and courts and government agencies are allowing them to do it.

A Georgia appeals court ruled Tuesday that a railroad company can force several families to give up land that some have held for generations, clearing another legal hurdle for a planned rail line in Hancock County. The families cannot be forced off their land yet, as a court order blocking the seizure remains in place.

What happened: The Georgia Court of Appeals upheld earlier decisions approving Sandersville Railroad’s request to take privately owned land by eminent domain — the legal power that allows a government or authorized company to seize private property for public use, with payment to the owner. The ruling came April 15.

The land at stake: The railroad wants a 200-foot-wide path across properties belonging to the Garrett, Smith, Reed, and Briggs families in Hancock County. The families use the land for farming, hunting, timber harvesting, and as their homes. One Garrett family member has lived on his family’s land for 72 of his 76 years. A Smith family descendant owns land where a Smith great-grandmother was born into slavery.

The project: Sandersville Railroad wants to build a 4.5-mile rail line called the Hanson Spur, connecting the Hanson Quarry to the CSXT national rail network. The company tried to buy the properties before seeking to take them by force. Those talks failed. The railroad filed its condemnation request with the Georgia Public Service Commission in March 2023.

What the court decided: The three-judge panel ruled that the Spur qualifies as a “channel of trade” under Georgia law, which counts as a public use. Georgia law allows eminent domain only for public use and specifically bars economic development alone as a justification. The court said it was not its job to second-guess the PSC’s findings, even noting that the judges themselves might have weighed the evidence differently.

The feasibility question: At a November 2023 hearing, the landowners’ expert testified that no economic feasibility study had been done and that the Spur would take decades to pay for itself. The railroad’s representative offered no formal study. He testified that he had “a good handle on [his] costs” and simply “kn[e]w it’s going to work.”

The stay: The court also rejected the railroad’s push to lift the stay — the court order that prevents the seizure of land from moving forward. That order remains in place. The railroad cannot begin taking the land while the case continues.

What the court told the families: The ruling stated plainly that the only remaining options for the landowners are the Georgia General Assembly, which wrote the laws that allowed this outcome, or the voters who elect the five members of the Public Service Commission. Voters threw out republican members of the commission last year, so that part has already happened.

What’s next: The Institute for Justice, the nonprofit law firm representing the families, has not yet said publicly whether it will seek further review. Any further appeal would likely return to the Georgia Supreme Court, which previously sent the case to the Court of Appeals after finding the families had not challenged the constitutionality of the statutes themselves.