Make you a pot of coffee and type Riffin in the search box and you'll come up with nine, count 'em, nine pages of references to this fellow in RyPN.

That'll give you all the info you'll want or need on the guy.

Thanks!

Tldr; a trouble maker with a legal degree and no bar admission who considers himself a railroad.

I've done enough reading in about 10/15 minutes to know that this guy is a little too far off of his rocking chair, and a a few french fries short of a Happy Meal...

[AAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

No.

Procure at least one large bottle of strong drink. Preferably 70 proof or stronger.

For a complete history get yourself a large bottle of vodka, start sipping, and read here:

http://tinyurl.com/89edx8w

Considering the state of the Stewartstown RR and the lack of freight service hindering any STB issues, maybe they will side for him just to get him off their backs....

"HERE - HERE IS A RAILROAD, now leave us ALONE!" (door slams shut, closed sign swings back and forth for a bit)

It would probably be one of the cheaper options for him to acquire of his many attempts.

Maybe he has the money to pay off the debt. Truth is stranger than fiction.

That is exactly what I was thinking. Not knowing the gentleman at all, but just the stories. If he is able to pay off the debt would it lead him to be any type of shareholder / owner of the company?

This whole Riffin et al saga reminds me of a little sign I see at work. There is a post-it note sized sign, right at eye level, on the door frame between the maintenance/engineering and purchasing offices: BANG HEAD HERE! Somehow this applies here-

Professorial Note: If you are going to read Mr. Riffin's filings you should also read the responses and the decisions. Some of the best legal minds in the country have pulled out much of their remaining hair while trying to deal with this fellow.

I also considered the possibility that the intent of the offer was to pay the debt and acquire the railroad. The fact that one of Riffin's associates has had multiple dealings with one of the Stewartstown's Board members made it at least seem plausible. I discarded the idea for two reasons. The first is that if this were the case the reasonable approach would have been to either purchase the railroad assets directly from the Stewartstown Board or to purchase the debt from the estate, not become a third litigant in the abandonment proceedings. The second is that a net liquidation value which values the real estate solely as a railbed is probably significantly lower than than a 'highest and best' use valuation and thus this OFA would not be acceptable to either the railroad or the estate.

Subsequently I came up with a third reason. Mr. Riffin's original foray into the world of railroads seems to have been his attempt to acquire the Northern Central Trail from Baltimore to the state line and possibly into York. Acquiring a legally active railroad at the northern end of the trail could be seen as leverage toward the Board granting him the common carrier status on his Baltimore property. Not highly likely that they would but then this is Mr. Riffin.

Then this showed up this afternoon:
http://www.stb.dot.gov/filings/all.nsf/ba7f93537688b8e5852573210004b318/c340f856e0740e588525798b006f7739/$FILE/231716.PDF

It would seem that NOBODY involved wants Mr. Riffin anywhere near this action.

GME

Glad to see that both groups were able to agree on this, even if they can't agree with each other about the line itself...see where teamwork can get you? :)

Why does he keep doing this? He's quoted in an article from 2007 in the Baltimore City Paper by Van Smith as saying, "I have a personal bias against losing railroad right of ways," he explains. "And I want freight service returned to my property in Cockeysville."

http://www2.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=14634

He thinks he's a railroad...I think it's more of a bizarre hobby.

Stephen

The quote from the Baltimore City Paper brings a couple of points to mind.

The first is that I don't believe that the Cockysville property ever was directly connected to rail, so returning rail service to the property is somewhat difficult. One cannot return to where one never was. There has, however, been more than one property discussed over the years so I may be referring to the wrong property.

The second is that the one time Mr. Riffin has actually been able to acquire a rail line he did so with the cooperation of the owner. He purchased a controlling interest in the owning corporation - not the property. Uncharacteristically, he paid for it with money - the legal tender of the United States [Note 1]. CSX properly issued the the deed in the corporation's name, not Riffin's. Riffin then sued to have the deed from CSX re-executed in his name and lost repeatedly. He lost control of the corporation and thereby the railroad in his bankruptcy.

I believe Brother Hussar's perception is correct (and I believe that I have suggested the same thing in the past) He does not want to own, manage or control a railroad. He wants to be a railroad.[Note 2]

In the case-in-chief here I believe both sides have recognized that the basic issue is the payment of the debt and not the Public Convenience and Necessity issues which are normally at play in an abandonment. Since Mr. Riffin's OFA does not address that issue they are not going to spend time on it. The fact that he did not see fit to follow the board's procedures simply makes him easier to get rid of, at least for the moment.

GME

[Note 1] This is the normal way of acquiring property, by trading value for value. He seems to be unable to recognize that his only success has been with his checkbook rather than forced acquisition through a process that does not even convey a property right. Neither he nor his occasional colleague from New Jersey have ever succeeded in acquiring property or traffic solely through the Exemption Process.

[Note 2] I suggested to Significant Other at dinner that I have a better chance of understanding what is going on in her brain than in Riffin's. My lovely eldest daughter, the Professor of Applied Mathematics, then proceeded to express the first probability as a fairly high negative (Remember that a probability of zero is ABSOLUTELY NOT). On the other hand the necessary surgery to convert a human being to a railroad...

" He wants to be a railroad."

What's so hard about that? The highest court in the land has determined that a corporation is a person, so why can't it work the other way?