Decision on the allocation of costs in the combined planning approval and expropriation procedure under railway law

Facts

In the planning approval and expropriation procedure for the expansion of the SBB line section Ligerz-Twann, various affected landowners filed objections. Since the conciliation negotiations before the President of the Federal Valuation Commission were unsuccessful, he transferred the files to the Federal Office of Transport (BAV) responsible for handling the objections. During the conciliation negotiations before the BAV, a "long tunnel" variant was discussed and the correspondingly amended project was then resubmitted. Thereupon, the lawyer of the objectors informed that they would no longer participate in the further proceedings, as their demands had been met by the project amendment. The BAV awarded the objectors a party compensation, which, however, was challenged by them.

Considerations

The Federal Court decided that in the combined planning approval and expropriation procedure under railway law, the objection authority, i.e. the BAV, is generally responsible for deciding on the cost and compensation consequences for the entire procedure from the time of the plan publication. This results from the legal regulation that the objections and compensation claims are submitted together and are handled in parallel until the conciliation negotiations.

However, if the proceedings become irrelevant before the decision on the objection or as a result of it, it is not justified for reasons of procedural economy to involve two different authorities -…