A-1 Contractors v. Strate

• Decision Date: 16 February 1996
• Docket Number: No. 92-3359,A-1,92-3359
• Citation: 76 F.3d 930
• Parties: CONTRACTORS; Lyle Stockert, Appellants, v. Honorable William STRATE, Associate Tribal Judge of the Tribal Court of the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation; Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, The Tribal Court; Lyndon Benedict Fredericks; Kenneth Lee Fredericks; Paul Jonas Fredericks; Hans Christian Fredericks; Jeb Pius Fredericks; Gisela Fredericks, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 930

76 F.3d 930

64 USLW 2537

A-1 CONTRACTORS; Lyle Stockert, Appellants, v. Honorable William STRATE, Associate Tribal Judge of the Tribal Court of the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation; Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, The Tribal Court; Lyndon Benedict Fredericks; Kenneth Lee Fredericks; Paul Jonas Fredericks; Hans Christian Fredericks; Jeb Pius Fredericks; Gisela Fredericks, Appellees.

No. 92-3359.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

Submitted May 23, 1995.

Decided Feb. 16, 1996.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of North Dakota; Patrick A. Conmy, U.S.D.C. Judge.

Patrick J. Ward, Bismark, North Dakota, argued (Michael G. Fiergola, on the brief), for appellant.

Melody L. McCoy, Boulder, Colorado, argued (Urban J. Bear Don't Walk, New Town, North Dakota and Thomas A. Dickson, Bismarck, North Dakota, on the brief), for appellee.

Before RICHARD S. ARNOLD, Chief Judge, FLOYD R. GIBSON, McMILLIAN, FAGG, BOWMAN, WOLLMAN, MAGILL, BEAM, LOKEN, HANSEN, MORRIS SHEPPARD ARNOLD, and MURPHY, Circuit Judges, en banc.

HANSEN, Circuit Judge.

In this case, we are asked to decide whether an American Indian Tribal Court has subject matter jurisdiction over a tort case which arose out of an automobile accident which occurred between two non-Indian parties on an Indian reservation. A divided panel of this court previously concluded that the Indian tribe retained the inherent sovereign power to allow the tribal court to exercise subject matter jurisdiction over the dispute. After granting the suggestion of A-1 Contractors and Lyle Stockert to rehear this case en banc, we vacated the panel opinion. We now hold that the tribal court does not have subject matter jurisdiction over the dispute.

I.

On November 9, 1990, on a state highway on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in west-central North Dakota, a gravel truck owned by A-1 Contractors and driven by Lyle Stockert (an A-1 employee) and a small car driven by Gisela Fredericks collided. Mrs. Fredericks suffered serious injuries and was hospitalized for 24 days. A-1 is a non-tribal company located in Dickinson, North Dakota. Stockert is not a member of the tribe and resides in Dickinson, North Dakota. Mrs. Fredericks is not a member of the tribe; however, she resides on the reservation, she was married to a tribal member (now deceased), and her adult children are enrolled members of the tribe.

At the time of the accident, A-1 was working on the reservation under a subcontract agreement with LCM Corporation, a corporation wholly owned by the tribe. Under the subcontract, A-1 performed excavating, berming, and recompacting work in connection with the construction of a tribal community building. A-1 performed all of the work under the subcontract within the boundaries of the reservation. The record is not clear whether Stockert was engaged in work under the contract at the time of the accident. ¹ In May 1991, Mrs. Fredericks sued A-1, Stockert, and Continental Western Insurance Company (A-1's insurer), in the Tribal Court for the Three Affiliated Tribes ² of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. Mrs. Fredericks' adult children also filed loss of consortium claims as part of the suit. Mrs. Fredericks and her adult children sought damages in excess of $13 million for personal injury, loss of consortium, and medical expenses.

A-1, Stockert, and Continental Western made a special appearance in tribal court and moved to dismiss the Frederickses' suit, contending that the tribal court lacked personal and subject matter jurisdiction. The tribal court denied the motion and found that it had personal and subject matter jurisdiction over the suit brought by Gisela Fredericks. Fredericks v. Continental Western Ins. Co., No. 5-91-A04-150, slip op at 1.24(d) (Fort Berthold Tribal Ct. Sept. 4, 1991). Specifically, the tribal court found that it had personal jurisdiction over the parties based on Chapter 1, section 3 of the Tribal Code because Mrs. Fredericks is a resident of the reservation and because A-1 had "entered and transacted business within the territorial boundaries of the Reservation." Id. at 1.24(c). The tribal court also concluded that it had subject matter jurisdiction over the action because its inherent tribal sovereignty had not been limited by treaty or federal statute. See id. at 1.24(d). Given the tribal court's conclusion that it had jurisdiction over the claims of Gisela Fredericks, the tribal court did not reach the question of its jurisdiction over the consortium claims brought by her children, who were tribal members.

A-1, Stockert, and Continental Western appealed to the Northern Plains Intertribal Court of Appeals. The Intertribal Court of Appeals affirmed the tribal court and remanded the case to the tribal court for further proceedings. Fredericks v. Continental Western Ins. Co., Northern Plains Intertribal Ct.App. (Jan. 8, 1992). The Intertribal Court of Appeals took a broad view of the tribe's civil authority over the non-Indians involved in this dispute:

Like any sovereign, Three Affiliated Tribes has [sic] an interest in providing a forum for peacefully resolving disputes that arise in their geographic jurisdiction and protecting the rights of those who are injured within such jurisdiction.

Slip op. at 7. Continental Western was dismissed from the case without prejudice pursuant to an agreement of the parties.

Before proceedings resumed in the tribal trial court, A-1 and Stockert filed this case in the United States District Court for the District of North Dakota against Mrs. Fredericks and her children (hereinafter "the Frederickses"), the Honorable William Strate, Associate Tribal Judge for the Tribal Court of the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, and the tribal court itself. A-1 and Stockert sought injunctive and declaratory relief. They asked the district court to declare that the tribal court had no jurisdiction over this matter, to enjoin the Frederickses from proceeding against them in the tribal court, and to enjoin the tribal judge and the tribal court (hereinafter the "tribal defendants") from asserting jurisdiction over them.

The tribal defendants initially raised the affirmative defense of sovereign immunity, but subsequently consented to the suit for the limited purpose of defending the federal law claims for injunctive relief. Both sides filed motions for summary judgment on the issue of tribal court jurisdiction. The district court denied the summary judgment motion of A-1 and Stockert, and it granted the summary judgment motions of the Frederickses and the tribal defendants. A-1 Contractors v. Strate, Civil No. A1-92-94 (D.N.D. Sept. 17, 1992). The district court decided that the only factual dispute was whether Mrs. Fredericks resided on or off the reservation, which was irrelevant to the issue of tribal court jurisdiction. Id. at 4-5. The district court then decided that the tribal court had both personal and subject matter jurisdiction, and concluded that Indian tribes have retained inherent sovereignty to exercise jurisdiction over civil causes of action between non-Indians that arise on the reservation unless specifically limited by treaty or federal statute. Id. at 9-10. The district court found that there was no treaty or statute that limited the tribe's jurisdiction in this case. Id. at 10. A-1 and Stockert appealed on the issue of subject matter jurisdiction over the claims of Mrs. Fredericks. ³

A panel of this court affirmed the district court in a two-to-one decision. A-1 Contractors v. Strate, No. 92-3359, 1994 WL 666051 (8th Cir. Nov. 29, 1994). A-1 and Stockert requested review of the panel's decision en banc. We granted their request, vacated the panel opinion, and set this case for rehearing en banc.

II.

We review de novo the district court's decision both granting and denying summary judgment. Get Away Club, Inc. v. Coleman, 969 F.2d 664, 666 (8th Cir.1992). We agree with the district court that this case presents no relevant factual disputes for our review. The only question presented, whether the tribal court has jurisdiction over this dispute, is a question of law. FMC v. Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, 905 F.2d 1311, 1313-14 (9th Cir.1990), cert. denied, 499 U.S. 943, 111 S.Ct. 1404, 113 L.Ed.2d 459 (1991).

The specific question presented for our resolution is whether the tribal court has civil jurisdiction over this dispute which arose between two non-Indian parties on the Fort Berthold Reservation. A-1 and Stockert argue that under Supreme Court case law, the tribe does not have the inherent sovereign authority to exercise civil jurisdiction over non-Indians unless the dispute implicates an important tribal interest. See, e.g., Montana v. United States, 450 U.S. 544, 101 S.Ct. 1245, 67 L.Ed.2d 493 (1981); South Dakota v. Bourland, 508 U.S. 679, 695-97, 113 S.Ct. 2309, 2320, 124 L.Ed.2d 606 (1993); Brendale v. Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakima Indian Nation, 492 U.S. 408, 426-27, 109 S.Ct. 2994, 3005-06, 106 L.Ed.2d 343 (1989) (plurality). A-1 and Stockert argue that because this case involves no such tribal interest, the district court erred in holding that the tribal court had subject matter jurisdiction over this dispute. The Frederickses and the tribal defendants (collectively "the appellees") argue that a different line of Supreme Court authority governs this issue. The appellees argue that language from this line of cases indicates that the district court correctly concluded that tribal courts have inherent civil jurisdictional authority over all disputes arising on the reservation, regardless of whether the parties involved are tribal members. See, e.g., Iowa Mutual Ins. Co. v. LaPlante, 480 U.S. 9, 107 S.Ct. 971, 94 L.Ed.2d 10 (1987); National Farmers Union Ins. Cos v. Crow Tribe of Indians, 471 U.S. 845, 105 S.Ct. 2447, 85 L.Ed.2d 818 (1985); Merrion v....