Wichita, KA: A proposed $4.2 million settlement has been granted preliminary approval by a federal judge, potentially ending a class action lawsuit brought against three of the country's largest telecommunications companies by thousands of Kansas landowners. The lawsuit involves property rights disputes over intallation of fiber-optic cable on railroad rights of way.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Kenneth Gale also certified a so-called settlement class composed of landowners with property adjacent and underlying the railroad rights of ways and approved the form and process to notify landowners in July.
The named defendants in the federal lawsuit are Sprint Communications Co., Qwest Communication Co. and Level 3 Communications. The lawsuit was filed in 2010. If the settlement is approved it would resolve claims that affect about 459 miles of railroad rights of way in Kansas.
According to a report by the Associated Press there are approximately 70 lawsuits pending in state and federal courts across the US that stem from a telecommunications companies having installed fiber-optic cable systems in railroad rights of way by reaching agreements with the railroads that possessed those rights. The plaintiffs alleged the railroads do not have sufficient rights to authorize the installation, while the defendants disagreed.
