Texas Central won a critical legal decision in developing a high-speed rail project between Dallas and Houston. The landowners, Leon County’s Jim and Barbara Miles, plan to appeal the ruling to the Texas Supreme Court, according to published reports. “If ever there was a ruling that created ‘the Wild, Wild, West’ of eminent domain authority, this is it,” Blake Beckham, The landowner’s attorney and special litigation counsel to Texans Against HSR, said in a statement. A Texas appeals court ruled in favor of Texas Central, holding that it was both a railroad company and an interurban electric railway, despite operating no trains yet. The Thirteenth Court of Appeals said Texas Central and its subsidiary Integrated Texas Logistics are legally railroads in the state of Texas, reversing a previous decision by the 87th District Court of Leon County. The decision by Justice Nora Longoria comes after a four-year court battle made by landowners along the proposed route in Leon County. The landowners argued that the project wasn’t a railroad and therefore didn’t have the rights associated with a railroad, including eminent domain and access to the property for surveyors. Click to read more at www.dmagazine.com.