I too am pessimistic about the outcome of this situation. However, there is a lesson to be learned here. From what I gather from reading this thread, a previous Mayor was involved with the volunteer group, and the equipment involved was placed here with verbal permission. As a Southerner, I still believe in the concept of "Gentleman's Agreements" and "Your word is your bond". However, times change, politics are now generally very nasty, and lawyers lurk under a number of bushes. The whole situation could have been avoided by the use of an obscure legal concept known as a "Contract". We lease equipment regularly and and also act as a lessor of our equipment. Most of the people we do business with fall into the category of friends, and a verbal agreement is the basis of that business. However, we always cover unforseen circumstances with one of these "contract" thingees.....

There's a very clear and simple solution here, but the group can't see it because somebody "moved their cheese".


They need to recognize that they have a very bad relationship with local government, partly because of deceptive behavior on their part. You can't go "no money for paint" - "no money to move away" - and then have money to bring new equipment in. So they need to take definitive steps to repair those relationships.

And then they need to recognize the importance of the county. They're buying the land. Could be the railroad museum is part of the value they're buying. Could be the railroad museum is in the way of some grand plan. Could be there are environmental issues -- nobody sells land like that without a phase-1 environmental site assessment, have you seen theirs? I also expect that all this railroad equipment, very much the "elephant in the room", would be thoroughly addressed by the sales contract. If the land turns out to NOT be the township's to sell, the guy who pays for that is the title insurer. I would imagine he would be sweating bullets over the possibility of the Trust claiming adverse possession, "we've been there for 20 years you can't kick us out now."

The curative for adverse possession is to throw the tenant out so fast that the eviction is a _fait accompli_ before the tenant figures out what their rights are.

In any case, the cheese is moved. I wouldn't bet the farm on a miracle, I'd brace to either dump the hardware and become a depot museum under the county's tutelage, or move the hardware and be an equipment museum in Elsewheresville. But most of all, talk to people. Usually at times like these, lots of not-talking happens and the result is the worst.

The auction is posted on the township website for August 12:

http://www.pemberton-twp.com/trainsforsale

Abandoned property laws vary from state to state. What may be true in California may not be in New Jersey, so unless your experience is in New Jersey, your experience may have no bearing on this case.

Museums can use abandoned property laws to their advantage…Example; You are part of a small museum and demonstration railroad. Many years ago when the group was getting started, and less organized, the group started giving rides with a Plymouth and a caboose. The caboose was or is owned by Bob. Bob was one of the founding members. Bob left the group many years ago. Bob may have moved to Florida. No one is sure. There is no paper work on ownership, a loan agreement, or a track or use lease… There is just a caboose.

The Caboose is showing its age. You would like to clean it up and paint it. One of your board members points out that you may not own the caboose. A typical museum board discussion ensues… “What if you fix it up and Bob wants it back?” or “We could lose our 501c3 if we use museum money to benefit a private owner”and likely many other scenarios.

Your options become: 1) clean up and paint the caboose and hope Bob or his heirs never show up. 2) push the caboose to the end of a weed grown track and ignore it (hoping that Bob or his kids don’t visit and get upset at the car’s condition and sue your group). or3) try to contact Bob, and have him donate or sell the car to the group, or failing that, have him remove it.

Abandoned property laws give you a structure to follow for option 3.

I do note that the conditions of sale specifically exclude both title and bill of sale. Just what legal right to a bit of rusty iron would one be bidding on?

dave

I thought somewhere it was stated that the group does own property nearby and some of the equipment was on that property. Is there a possibility of moving the rest of the equipment to that property?

Does the Town even recognize that property line?

As has been pointed out before, getting your property nailed down and either under long term lease or full ownership prior to starting a collection is paramount

I called them and asked about the lack of a bill of sale or title. They said they will not provide a formal bill of sale, but they will provide a receipt with the transaction showing the amount paid and a description of the item being purchased. So a buyer will have proof of purchase.

Here is a Google Street View of the museum site:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=pemberton,+nj&ll=39.977075,-74.680346&spn=0.001239,0.002264&z=19&layer=c&cbll=39.97701,-74.68071&panoid=wpNQZ6ir4lUDk_4A0fjzTQ&cbp=12,289.7,,0,-1.42

The rail trail goes away from the camera, and goes for a couple miles.

The Wawa parking lot is visible on the right. The Trust's property is behind the Wawa, to the right of the trail. I haven't seen anything to tell me exactly where the easement area would be, but I believe it's on Wawa's land adjacent to the trail. If you were walking the trail, you would pass the Wawa easement area on your right, and followed by the Trust's land.

This picture was taken before last summer. There have been a few changes since then.

The objects in front of the caboose are hay wagons used to conduct tours down the trail. They have been moved. In their place is the PS-1 box car. All of the cars have been moved back further away on the track, past the section house, which is the white building behind the station.

The locomotive to the right of the caboose in the picture is the 100 ton, the 44 ton was placed a little closer and to the right. I'm told that it is on the Trust's land. Can the Township sell the Trust's locomotive from the Trust's land? Apparently they are trying.

The brown object is a donated water tank that is not in use. This is clearly on the Trust's land. It is telling that the water tank and the hay wagons are not in the auction, yet.

Since the picture was taken, there is no longer parking between the road and the station. The raised asphalt platforms that the PRR put in have been illegally ripped out by the contractor and replaced with a shoddy wooden deck platform. The old platforms were historic in their own right, and the deep concrete curbing helped to divert runoff water from heading into the station basement.

This view is one step to the right in street view and gives some perspective:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=pemberton,+nj&ll=39.977075,-74.680346&spn=0.001239,0.002264&z=19&layer=c&cbll=39.97701,-74.68071&panoid=wpNQZ6ir4lUDk_4A0fjzTQ&cbp=12,289.7,,0,-1.42

The section house that the Trust built is clearly visible in this view, with the caboose next to it.

I have been very careful in my postings to stick to publicly known facts. If I've been told something that I believe to be true, I post that as a belief unless I can verify it. I am a member of the Trust, but I am not on the Board and I do not speak for it.

-Mark Trebing

Mark:
One significant correction to your posting. There is no Trust owned property. WaWa provided an easement tothe Trust and that is all. I have confirmed this with the Trust and the documents are also in the town files and available for public viewing, in fact available on line. The track built for the 45 tonner was moved the day the locomotive arrived to a small county easement. So, to summarize, all the equipment is on township property, except the 45 tonner which is on a small sliver of county property, although the township has surveyed the area and confirmed that a small segment of the 45 tonner is on township property. Again, there is no such thing as Trust owned property. If you would like the link to the easement data, send me an email.
J.R.

Okay, I have not seen an actual deed, but I was told explicitly that the Trust owned that land. I have been told that on more than one occasion by Board members and I wanted to be absolutely certain. I was concerned that the Trust really needed a place to move the equipment in the event that there was ever a problem with whichever government entity was the host. I had this concern before the present problem. I've seen examples of similar problems described on RYPN and I wanted us to be able to avoid them. Anything that you care about and are going to spend many hours working on in the hot sun should have an assured future.

I also asked whether they were absolutely sure that the particular spot where we built the track was owned by the Trust. A member of the Board assured me that they did. They pointed to some kind of boundary marker in the ground as evidence of location. I was surprised when the crane was used to move the track further back when the 44 ton was delivered, but I was told that it was to comply with not being too near the boundary line.

J.R. I am not disputing your statement, but at this point I don't know whether they do or don't and none of the alternatives are good. If the Board members are mistaken about something this fundamental, that's a serious problem. If I've been lied to, that's another serious problem.

Regards, Mark

Mark:
I was up half the night thinking about this. The following takes you to the deed information. Its a *itch to find it.

PEMBERTON HISTORIC TR INC
DatedL 5/27/2008
DEEDS6570

This may take you to it:
http://press1.co.burlington.nj.us/WX1/D ... lose=False

J.R.