Tag Archives: reversionary interest

By: Erica Stutman

In Brandt Revocable Trust v. U.S., the United States Supreme Court held that abandoned railway rights-of-way that had been granted to railroad companies under the General Railroad Right-of-Way Act of 1875 left underlying landowners with property free of the rights-of-way, and the United States government has no interest in the abandoned land.

Pursuant to the Act, the government granted railroad companies the right to build railroads through public lands.  In large part, the government later conveyed the public land underlying the rights-of-way to private landowners by a land patent, which stated that the land was conveyed subject to a right-of-way for railroad purposes.… Read More »