SEATTLE — BNSF Railway owes Washington state’s Swinomish Indian Tribal Community $394.5 million for violating an agreement governing railroad operation across tribal land, a federal judge has ruled.
U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik reached that figure after a four-day bench trial, the Seattle Times reports. He had previously ruled the railroad had violated a 1991 agreement by sending crude-oil trains across a less than 1-mile segment of the Swinomish Reservation between September 2012 and May 2021 [see “Judge rules BNSF oil trains violated tribal agreement,” Trains News Wire, March 28, 2023]. Lasnik ruled last year that the railroad had “willingly, consciously, and knowingly” violated the agreement that allowed only one train of no more than 25 cars per train in each direction each day.
The railroad and Swinomish agreed that more than 266,000 cars had violated that agreement and generated about $900 million in revenue, but disagreed about the penalty that should result. Lasnik’s ruling details the profits per car, deducts the amount that could have been earned through legal movements, determined the railroad had made about $362.2 million in profits, plus $32.2 million in post-tax profits such as investment income, as a result of the trespassing.
Swinomish Chairman Steve Edwards said in a statement reported by the Times, “When there are these kinds of profits to be gained, the only way to deter future wrongdoing is to do exactly what the court did today — make the trespasser give up the money it gained by trespassing.” Edwards said he expects BNSF to appeal the decision but that “we look forward to defending Judge Lasnik’s decision to defend our homeland.”
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