Current and Former Owners of Land Next to or Under Railroad Rights of Way May Be Eligible for Cash Payments from Class Action Settlement

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The following class-action Settlement is being announced by Court-approved Notice-program designer, Kinsella Media LLC:

A federal court has granted preliminary approval for a class-action Settlement involving fiber-optic cable and related telecommunications equipment that have been installed in railroad Rights of Way.  This Settlement resolves a lawsuit in Arizona and will provide cash benefits to current and former owners of land next to or under the Rights of Way.

Sprint, CenturyLink, WilTel, and Level 3 Communications, the Defendants, are telecommunications companies. The Defendants or their predecessors buried fiber-optic cable and installed related telecommunications equipment within railroad Rights of Way nationwide.  A railroad Right of Way is a strip of land on which a railroad company builds and operates a railroad.  The Defendants entered into agreements with the railroads that own and occupy the Rights of Way, and under those agreements paid the railroads for the rights to install the fiber-optic cable and related telecommunications equipment within the Rights of Way.

Plaintiffs allege that, before installing the fiber-optic cable and related telecommunications equipment, the Defendants also were required to obtain consent from those landowners who owned the land under the Rights of Way.  The Defendants contend that the railroads had the right to allow them to use the Rights of Way without the need for further permission from the adjoining landowners and deny any wrongdoing.

Class Members include current or previous owners of land next to or under a railroad Right of Way, at any time since the cable was installed in the state of Arizona.  Settlements have previously been approved in 45 states.

Class Members can find out when fiber-optic cable was installed in a particular Right of Way by visiting www.ArizonaFiberOpticSettlement.com or calling 1-877-900-9196.  Class Members will have an opportunity to claim cash benefits if the Court approves the Proposed Settlement.

The Proposed Settlement will provide cash payments to qualifying Class Members based on various factors that include:

• How many feet of property you own next to the railroad right of way,
• How long you owned the property, and
• How many people co-own the property with you.

The Proposed Settlement will also result in any Court order granting final approval of the Settlement being recorded in the chain-of-title of Class Members' property.

For more information regarding the Class Actions visit www.ArizonaFiberOpticSettlement.com or call 1-877-900-9196.

SOURCE Kinsella Media, LLC