Facts
The Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) applied to the Federal Office of Transport (BAV) for the implementation of a combined railway planning approval and expropriation procedure for the Muttenz-Liestal-Sissach-Trimbach line as part of the "Rail 2000" concept. Inter Classic-Cars AG filed an objection and made claims for replacement property and compensation. The Federal Department of Transport, Communications and Energy (EVED) rejected the planning approval application for the Liestal-Sissach-Trimbach section and awarded the objectors, who were represented by a lawyer, party compensation. The President of the Federal Appraisal Commission, District 7, also awarded Inter Classic-Cars AG party compensation for the entire procedure. The SBB filed an administrative court appeal against this decision.Considerations
The Federal Court states that in combined railway and expropriation proceedings, the costs and compensation consequences of the objection procedure on the one hand and the expropriation compensation procedure on the other hand must generally be decided separately. However, if the procedure becomes irrelevant before the decision on the objection or through the decision itself, the competence to regulate the costs may lie solely with the authority that has dealt with the matter most recently and has concluded the procedure.
In the present case, the EVED had regulated the party compensation for the objection procedure in the decision on the objection and expressly reserved the decision on the cost consequences of the expropriation compensation procedure to the Appraisal Commission. Therefore, the President of the Appraisal Commission…