Ohio high court dismisses claim to land used as trail

COLUMBUS - The Ohio Supreme Court yesterday sided with Erie County Metroparks in dismissing an attempt by property owners to claim land being used as a public recreational trail.

In a 6-1 decision, the court refused to order the parks board to either relinquish the land or compensate those through whose property the trail runs. It found that the statute of limitations for the local property owners' challenge had expired.

The convoluted history of the property began in 1827 when the state chartered the Milan Canal Co. to operate a roughly 6.5-mile canal from Milan to the Huron River. In 1881, the company issued a 99-year lease to the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway Company for use of an adjacent right-of-way for a railroad.

Rail traffic ended in the 1980s, and the rail company's interests were transferred to the county park district, which opened the right-of-way to the public as the Huron River Greenway in 2003.

The original canal company was dissolved in 1994. Its property rights were transferred to a trust that, in turn, conveyed former canal property to others, setting the stage for numerous battles in state and federal courts over who actually owns the strip of land that became the trail.

The Supreme Court's majority agreed with the parks board that the owners had failed to bring its action to the court within the required four years from when the property-taking had occurred.