Kansas City Southern Railway Co. v. Sny Island Levee Drainage Dist.

Record contained sufficient evidence to support Dist. Ct.’s judgment in favor of defendant in bench trial of plaintiffs-railroads’ action alleging that defendant’s tax assessment against plaintiff’s properties violated Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act because assessment calculation formula used by defendant discriminated against railroad properties. Instant formula assessed tax based on benefit that plaintiffs’ properties obtained from existence of defendant’s levee and drainage works through estimation of percentage amount of damage to plaintiff that any flooding would cause to plaintiffs’ properties, and plaintiffs failed to show that such methodology was discriminatory to their properties. Moreover, Dist. Ct. could properly weigh competing opinions from parties’ experts and could properly find that defendant’s expert’s opinion was “reasonable” and “generally credible.” Also, Dist. Ct. in instant bench trial need not conduct Daubert analysis of defendant’s expert prior to trial, where Dist. Ct. made requisite findings during trial.