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Manorville property formerly used for a railroad track will remain in the possession of the Allegheny Valley Land Trust, the state Supreme Court ruled this month.

For 14 years, several landowners have been seeking ownership of the strip of land, maintaining that Conrail abandoned the right-of-way and the land should be returned to them.

The landowners sued after Conrail discontinued rail service and gave the right-of-way to the land trust in early 1992. The Armstrong County Court of Common Pleas ruled in the landowners' favor in late 2005. The state Superior Court reversed the decision in 2007.

In affirming the Superior Court's decision 4-2, the majority opinion written by Justice Jane Cutler Greenspan stated: "The property rights of the appellants have in no way been changed by this railbanking. No taking has occurred."

Railbanking is a process by which an organization maintains and preserves a former rail line for possible future use as a railroad. The opinion stated that Conrail sold the right-of-way to the land trust and did not intend to abandon the rail service.

The land trust maintains the strip of land as a trail.

"We hold a proper railbanking was accomplished here," the opinion said.

The opinion listed the following landowners as appellants: Sally Moody, Robert Moody, Fred Brient Jr., Cynthia Brient, William Duff McCrady, William Lucas, A.J. Lucas, Glenn Beatty, Sharon Beatty, Rodney Denardo, Melissa Denardo, Dennis Iseman, William Iseman and the estate of Mary Keller, David Kushon and Janie Kushon.

Sally Moody of Applewold said the property that has been in her family for two centuries. She declined further comment until discussing the matter with her attorney.

In a press release, Allegheny Valley Land Trust executive director Ron Steffey said he and other defendants were pleased with the Supreme Court's decision. The entire Armstrong Trail -- excluding the Brady Narrows Tunnel -- in Armstrong and Clarion counties is open for public use, he said.

The opinion listed the following people and organizations as appellees: Allegheny Valley Land Trust, Armstrong County Conservancy Charitable Trust, Armstrong Rails to Trails Association, Consolidated Rail Corporation, Jerry F. Longwell, Lee J. Calarie, David R. Ruppert, Norman Karp and Wilhelminna Decock.

Landowners involved in the lawsuit will be asked to remove "barricades and/or signs that may indicate to the general public that any portion of the right-of-way is not open," Steffey said in the release.

"AVLT will strive to be a responsible owner and will take into consideration requests from neighbors while working with our local, state and federal government partners to further develop currently uncompleted portions of the Armstrong Trail," Steffey said in the release.

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