Judge allows Nixon to proceed with Katy bridge suit

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A judge ruled Monday that Attorney General Jay Nixon cannot be barred from suing the Department of Natural Resources in a dispute involving an old railroad bridge and the Katy Trail State Park.

Attorneys for DNR had argued that Nixon's office should be disqualified from bringing the lawsuit because of an alleged conflict of interest. They claimed one of Nixon's attorneys assigned to work with DNR shared confidential information that the attorney general then used to sue the agency.

Senior Cole County Judge Byron Kinder denied the disqualification motion during a brief hearing.

"I don't think I have the authority to generally disqualify the attorney general's office," Kinder said.

But Kinder also granted attorneys for the department the right to depose Assistant Attorney General William Bryan, the lawyer who previously had been assigned to department issues.

Underlying the procedural wrangling is Nixon's assertion that DNR director Doyle Childers had no legal authority to relinquish the state's interest in an old Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad bridge over the Missouri River at Boonville.

In 1987, the state bought a 200-mile stretch of idle MKT line between the St. Charles area and Sedalia. Abandoned rail lines typically revert to private property owners, but a federal law allows them to be used as trails, so long as they are preserved for potential railroad use in the future.

The bridge was specifically excluded from the sale, but the agreement stipulated that DNR could use the bridge for the trail if it assumed liability on terms acceptable to the railroad.

Union Pacific Railroad Co., which now owns the bridge, wants to tear it down and reuse the steal on a new Osage River bridge east of Jefferson City. To help facilitate that, Childers waived the state's right to use the bridge for the trail.

Nixon then sued Childers and the department in May. Among other things, Nixon claims that Childers cannot relinquish the state's interest in the bridge without legislative approval -- and even then, cannot do so without getting compensation for the state.

In a Sept. 6 affidavit submitted to the court by Nixon's office, Bryan said he provided legal advice to DNR employees about how to exercise the state's right to use the bridge and prevent it from being demolished. But he said no one from DNR discussed the possibility of relinquishing the state's interest in the bridge before he learned April 22 that DNR officials had decided to do so.

While the lawsuit over the bridge proceeds, some Boonville residents are leading a fundraising drive in hopes of restoring the bridge as part of the trail. They have no guarantee, however, that Union Pacific would agree to the refurbishment instead of dismantling the bridge.