Soo Line Railroad Co. d/b/a Canadian Pacific v. Consolidated Railroad Corp.

Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
Railroads
Citation
Case Number: 
No. 19-3100
Decision Date: 
July 15, 2020
Federal District: 
N.D. Ind., Hammond Div.
Holding: 
Affirmed

Plaintiff waived any issue regarding propriety of Dist. Ct.’s dismissal of its state-court lawsuit seeking to set aside trackage rights agreement that plaintiff, as minority shareholder of entity that had signed said agreement, believed was detrimental to said entity. Record showed that Surface Transportation Board, which has exclusive authority to regulate terms of trackage rights agreements, had exempted instant agreement from its process, and Dist. Ct., in dismissing instant action, found that instant action was preempted by two separate provisions, one of which ( i.e., 49 USC section 11321(a)) provides that railroad “participating in … exempted transaction is exempt from … laws, including State and municipal laws, as necessary to let [railroad] carry out the transaction.” Plaintiff failed to essentially contest defendants’ section 11321(a) preemption argument in Dist. Ct., and thus said failure amounted to waiver of issue on appeal. Moreover, plaintiff conceded said waiver on appeal, but asked Ct. of Appeals to overlook said waiver.