Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority v. Boston and Maine Corporation, et al. (Lawyers Weekly No. 12-124-17)

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS SUFFOLK, ss. SUPERIOR COURT CIVIL ACTION No. 17-00153-BLS1 MASSACHUSETTS BAY TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY vs. BOSTON AND MAINE CORPORATION & others1 MEMORANDUM OF DECISION AND ORDER ON PLAINTIFF MASSACHUSETTS BAY TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY’S PARTIAL MOTION TO DISMISS DEFENDANTS’ COUNTERCLAIMS Plaintiff, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), filed this action for declaratory and injunctive relief against defendants, Boston and Maine Corporation, Springfield Terminal Railway Company, and Pan Am Southern LLC (referred to collectively as “Pan Am”). The dispute involves the implementation of positive train control (PTC), a safety system aimed at preventing train accidents. Pan Am alleged eleven counterclaims against the MBTA. MBTA now moves to dismiss three of the counterclaims pursuant to Mass. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6). The three counterclaims allege misrepresentation (Count VIII), promissory/equitable estoppel (Count IX), and violation of G.L. c. 93A, § 11 (Count X). For the reasons stated below, the MBTA’s motion to dismiss is allowed. BACKGROUND The facts as revealed by Pan Am’s counterclaims are as follows. The MBTA is a body politic and corporate and a political subdivision of the 1 Springfield Terminal Railway Company and Pan Am Southern LLC. Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It operates bus, subway, commuter rail, and ferry systems in and around Boston, Massachusetts. The Pan Am defendants operate freight lines over tracks that, in some instances, are owned and/or used by the MBTA. Since 2010, Pan Am worked closely and cooperatively with the MBTA to plan and prepare for the implementation of PTC on tracks over which both parties operate. The parties worked to comply with a 2008 federal mandate requiring that PTC be implemented on certain rail lines, including lines that carry certain minimum levels of passenger traffic. PTC is designed to prevent train-to-train collisions, derailments resulting from excessive speed, and other types of accidents. Generally, PTC uses a combination of on-board and rail-side technology to track and control train movements on the rail lines outfitted with this technology. In this dispute, the rail lines affected include both MBTA-owned trackage, over which Pan Am operates freight trains pursuant to a reserved freight easement, and Pan Am-owned trackage, over which the MBTA initiated and expanded commuter rail operations at the end of 2016. According to Pan Am, under federal law, PTC must be implemented on the rail lines at issue because the MBTA operates passenger trains on them. Absent the MBTA’s use of these rail lines, no PTC system is required. In addition, freight trains may not operate on tracks handling passenger traffic that are required to have PTC unless those freight trains are equipped with a PTC system that is compatible with the commuter rail’s PTC system. After the federal government imposed the 2008 PTC requirements, Pan Am alleges that […]

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