Top court to take look at trail case

By CAITLIN SULLIVAN/Staff
A Washington County property owner and the town of Saltville are heading back to court. This time, though, it’s to the biggest court in the state.
The Virginia Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case at an undetermined time.
In January 2007, Washington County Circuit Judge Randall Lowe ruled that the title to the railroad property could be conveyed to the town. Two years later, in July, a three-judge panel found reason for the appeal of Lowe’s ruling to go to the top court. As of Oct. 14, the court had received all briefs from both parties. The seven-judge panel based in Richmond is expected to enter a written opinion after it hears the case.
The case began in March 2006, when the town of Saltville filed a complaint against Shirley Ann “Sissy” Bailey.
Bailey maintains that the old Norfolk & Western Railway, which runs through her property, and became the Salt Trail, is her private property. The town claims that an easement gives it the right to build the trail.
“I own almost a mile of the track and I don’t feel it’s right to bully me into giving up my property,” Bailey said. “If my deed is no good than no one’s in Washington County is. I think it’s worth fighting for.”
Bailey’s attorney, James Henderson of the Tazewell-based Henderson & Forster, said the case hinges on the meanings of legal terms and interpretations of a law written in 1909. He said legal language in a contract written a hundred years ago, such as the term “right of way,” may have morphed over time and meanings might have changed.
“(We’re arguing that the railroad) only had an easement, they had a right to use it but not a right to sell it to someone else,” Henderson said.
In 1909, he said, the term “right of way” had an established meaning, and it was used to denote an easement.
“It’s a matter of interpretation,” Henderson said. “What do these words mean? What did the parties mean when they entered into an agreement in 1909? There’s law that ours is right and a little on the other side.”
Like her attorney, Bailey is confident she will win.
“I have no doubt in my mind I’ll win,” Bailey said. “It should get interesting. I never thought I’d be standing in a Supreme Court hall in Virginia. I think we done good. I hope right prevails and if it does I intend to ask the town of Saltville to get off my property.”
She said it didn’t have to be that way. She offered to sell her part of the trail to the town, but it declined.
“That trail is as poisonous as a rattlesnake,” Bailey said. “I’ve had 15 head of horses die and they’re allowing the public to walk on this poison.”
Bailey claims the trail bed tested positive for mercury, lead, arsenic, barium, cadmium and chromium.
In the meantime, the Town of Glade Spring is thinking of developments of their own with the Salt Trail.
Attempts to contact Saltville were unsuccessful.
Glade Spring Town Manager Toby Boian said he and Town Council member Steve Cannon were asked to discuss an assessment with an engineering firm. The Council, he said, hopes to extend the Salt Trail from its current endpoint on Old Mill Road through the Town Square.
He said a Supreme Court ruling in favor of Bailey would impact Glade Spring’s desire to develop the Salt Trail.
“We’ll let that run its course,“ he said.
To contact Caitlin Sullivan e-mail or call (276) 628-7101.