How to Determine Who Owns a Right of Way

[in search of justice]

My question involves real estate located in the State of: Virginia
Our deed has the call numbers for a 12' right of way on our property, which I have been able to research back to the original owner of 1910.We are in a dispute with neighbor over ROW. This property was one large farm in 1910 but was sold off as several pieces. Back in late 1800's, coal was mined and hauled over our ROW . Our neighbor bought the piece of land behind us so the ROW goes to her property.
I researched her deed and found it the ROW was referenced to go back to a deed of 1956 for " a more full and comlete description fo the same."
In 1956, owner of original land was selling a large piece of his farm to a coal company and the original owner was retaining a few acres for his Mother's homeplace. The homeplace was unused for about 75 years now. The wording used in deed to the coal company and referenced also in neighbors deed is this, " the said party of the first part (original owners)do hereby grant, bargain, sell and convey unto the the said party of the second part (coal company), his heirs and assigns, the right to pass in, under , over and through said 5 acres tract of surface for the purpose of mining, hauling, transporting and removing any coal, oil, gas or minerals, which said party of the second part or (coal company) now owns on any other lands,or which said party of the second part (coal co), their lessees, vendees, assignees or sucessors may hereafter acquire in, on or under any other lands, provided that in passing over said 5 acre tract, the said party of the second part, his heirs and assigns, shall be limited to the use of the roadway now passing over said land and which roadway is presently in use, with the right to the said party of the second part, his heirs or assigns, to maintain said road.
There is also excepted and reserved from the operation of this conveyance, for the use and benefit of (original owner), his heirs and assigns, the right to use the present roadway now running through said property to the property now owned by the ( original owners)."
I am sorry this is so lengthy but we have hired two attorneys in the last 23 years to resolve this. We went to court yesterday and the judge gave our ROW land to our neighbor and said it does not belong to us even though there is no actual description nor call's on her deed. Thank you for any help you may be able to provide.

[Mr. Knowitall]

If you lost in court, you need to discuss with your lawyer the grounds for the judge's ruling and whether it's worth appealing. Unless and until you share with us the legal and factual basis for the judge's ruling, it's difficult for us to comment on the situation.

What do you mean by "the judge gave our ROW land to our neighbor" - are you stating that the judge affirmed the validity of the right of way, or are you stating that the judge said that the property under the right of way is to be titled over to the other party?

[in search of justice]

Thank you for anwering. I am waiting to get a copy of court reporters notes. In the trial, the Judge sworn in the witnesses(which I was one of), then asked us to leave the courtroom. Our attorney did not supply any of our evidence to the defendant's attorney prior to court date, so the Judge would not allow any prior deeds(going back to 1956). She ruled by Summary of the surrounding deeds to our land. My problem is A) our attorney should have known to supply the deeds ( of which I quoted in my first question to you) B) the trial has taken my husband almost 13 years plus 2 attorney's to get into court C) the deed Judge used to rule by and give our 12' ROW to was not even the defendant in this case and the references in her deed refers to the deed of 1956 for a more complete and full description. She ruled we did not own the property even though the 12' ROW has the call's listed in our deed since 1910 and shown on a survey since 1997. How could she give our land to a person not even in our lawsuit? And could not our attorney objected on those grounds alone? This is a small town and we were told the defendants had said they were not worried about the courts since he had them in his back pocket. Thank you so much. We are trying to decide what to do since we have spent so much already and we are on a fixed income. My husband is diabled.