McPHERSON COUNTY, Kan. — The Kansas Court of Appeals has upheld a McPherson County District Court ruling involving a civil action related to the Meadowlark Trail between McPherson and Lindsborg.
In an unpublished opinion released Friday, a three-judge panel of the court affirmed McPherson County District Court rulings in favor of Central Kansas Conservancy in a 2018 civil action brought by Tracy Presnell, whose family and other adjacent landowners had been challenging development of the trail along a former Union Pacific Railroad right of way for close to three decades.
Presnell’s suit, and two others filed by other landowners, claimed adverse possession and issues related to the Kansas Recreation Trails Act. CKC filed a counterclaim alleging Presnell intentionally obstructed their easement to prevent trail development, on which the court ruled in CKC’s favor and ordered Presnell to pay 15 thousand dollars in punitive damages.
In its ruling, the court cited similar rulings made in challenges filed by other landowners along the trail, specifically litigation brought against CKC by Clinton and Kimbra Sides, and past litigation Presnell has been involved with.
The adjoining landowners had contended that CKC did not commence development of the trail within two years of obtaining it from the railroad. Prior court rulings including one in the Sides case have held the two-year development window stated in the Kansas Rails to Trails Act did not apply here because negotiations between CKC and Union Pacific had commenced prior to the 1996 enactment of that law.
In the opinion the panel also reviewed the long history of litigation Presnell, and his father have been involved in against CKC and rail trails in general including one case Robert Presnell was part of that went to the US Supreme Court. Tracy Presnell has himself brought three cases since the Sides decision in 2018.
In upholding punitive damages, the panel cited ongoing actions of Presnell to block trail access, specifically those that took place after the Sides ruling was issued.
The full opinion can be found at c09210cb-4bfd-4e4d-a2a3-286ae5c4c29b_127165.pdf
