Lawsuit Over Sudbury Eversource, Rail Trail Project Dismissed By Judge

SUDBURY, MA — A state Land Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by a group of local landowners trying to stop an Eversource transmission line project — which also includes an extension of the Massachusetts Central Rail Trail linked — but the legal battleground may only be shifting.

The group Protect Sudbury filed the Land Court suit in November on behalf of a handful of landowners in Sudbury and Hudson whose property abuts a former rail corridor that Eversource is using to bury electric transmission lines. After Eversource finishes that work, the corridor will be paved and become the newest link along the Boston-to-Northampton Massachusetts Central Rail Trail.

Protect Sudbury wants a Land Court judge to determine if the rail corridor still actually belongs to the group of property owners. The MBTA purchased the rail line in the 1970s from a freight rail company, but never moved forward with plans for a commuter rail line along it.

"We believe that the MBTA only has a surface transportation easement over those lands and that neither underground nor overhead transmission lines are permitted," Protect Sudbury said in November after filing the suit.

A Land Court judge on Wednesday agreed to dismiss the case because Protect Sudbury plans to refile it — but only on behalf of Hudson property owners, not Sudbury landowners, according to court records.

If the case is setting aside claims by Sudbury landowners, it would be a potentially major shift in the fight. The town of Sudbury was previously behind the Protect Sudbury cause, and spent about $1.34 million across three different legal fights dating back to 2016 in an attempt to stop Eversource.

Meredith Ann Swisher, a Boston-based attorney representing the landowners, declined to comment on the case when reached by phone Monday. Protect Sudbury President Ray Phillips did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Phillips has previously said the group has not taken a stance on the rail trail portion of the project, and has only opposed the Eversource piece.

"Since our incorporation in 2016, Protect Sudbury has never taken a position regarding the construction of a rail trial. Why? Because Protect Sudbury's fight is NOT and has never been about rail trails. It is about a 115 kilovolt transmission line that brings with it serious health and safety concerns for our community," Phillips said in a December update about the matter.

The shift of the Land Court case is the latest in a series of legal decisions that have not necessarily fallen in Protect Sudbury's favor.

In December, the federal Surface Transportation Board (STB) denied a petition from the group to declare the rail line as "abandoned." Such a ruling could have helped with the Land Court case. The STB in February 2022 shot down a previous challenge by Protect Sudbury, saying the group didn't have standing in front of the board, which oversees freight rail broadly in the U.S.

Eversource has already started work on the transmission line following previous rulings in favor of the project by the state Energy Facilities Siting Board and the state Supreme Court.