Bedoni v. Navajo-Hopi Indian Relocation Com'n

Citation854 F.2d 321
Decision Date11 August 1988
Docket NumberNo. 87-1818,NAVAJO-HOPI,87-1818
PartiesDarrell BEDONI and his parents Sidney Bedoni and Lena Bedoni, husband and wife, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v.INDIAN RELOCATION COMMISSION, an independent administrative agency for the United States of America, Ralph Watkins, Sandra Massetto, and Hawley Atkinson, as Commissioners of the NHIRC, and Christopher Bavasi, as Executive Director thereof, Defendants-Appellees.
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit)

Richard M. Grimsrud, Flagstaff, Ariz., for plaintiffs-appellants.

Maria A. IIzuka, Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., for defendants-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Arizona.

Before GOODWIN, and FLETCHER, Circuit Judges, and KING, * District judge.

ORDER

The memorandum disposition filed June 24, 1988, is hereby redesignated an opinion. Minor citational changes have been incorporated into the opinion.

SAMUEL P. KING, Senior District Judge:

Sidney and Lena Bedoni ("the Bedonis") and their son Darrell Bedoni ("Darrell") (collectively "Plaintiffs") appeal the district court's grant of the Navago-Hopi Indian Relocation Commission's ("NHIRC") motion for summary judgment effectively denying replacement housing benefits to Darrell or, in the alternative, increased replacement housing benefits to the Bedonis. We conclude that the relief prayed for by the Plaintiffs places this dispute within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Court of Claims. We, therefore, vacate the district court's order and remand the Plaintiffs' claims to the district court for consideration of whether the interests of justice require transfer of their claims to the Court of Claims.

I. FACTS
A. Historical Background

In 1958, pursuant to Congressional authorization and waiver of tribal sovereign immunity, 1 the Hopi Indian Tribe initiated a quiet title action to settle a conflicting claim with the Navajo Indian Tribe to reservation land in northeastern Arizona established by executive order in 1882. By court order, Healing v. Jones, 210 F.Supp. 125 (D.Ariz.1962), aff'd per curiam, 373 U.S. 758, 83 S.Ct. 1559, 10 L.Ed.2d 703 (1963), the Hopi and Navajo Indian Tribes were given joint, undivided and equal interest in five-sixths of the reservation, an area known as the Joint Use Area ("JUA").

Both tribes found their co-tenancy in the JUA unsatisfactory and unworkable, prompting a series of disputes concerning interpretation and compliance with the Healing judgment. 2 In 1974, Congress intervened by providing for the appointment of a mediator to assist in negotiating a settlement and partition of the JUA. Act of Dec. 22, 1974, Pub.L. No. 93-531, 88 Stat. 1712, as amended by Pub.L. No. 96-305, 94 Stat. 930 (1980) (codified as amended at 25 U.S.C. Secs. 640d--640d-28). Congress empowered the Arizona District Court to partition the JUA between the Hopi and Navajo Tribes on an equal basis should the mediation efforts fail. The district court entered a judgment of partition in 1977. 3

To facilitate the partition ordered by the court, Congress created the Navajo-Hopi Indian Relocation Commission ("NHIRC"), as "an independent entity in the executive branch." 25 U.S.C. Sec. 640d-11(a). NHIRC was commissioned with the task of relocating Navajo and Hopi residents who, as a result of the court-directed partition, were located on lands allocated to the other tribe. Id. Sec. 640d-13(a). The scope of the NHIRC's authority included, inter alia, the disbursement of funds equivalent to the "reasonable cost of a decent, safe, and sanitary replacement dwelling to accommodate [a displaced] household." Id. Sec. 640d-14(b)(2).

B. Factual Background

In 1977, the Bedonis applied to the NHIRC for relocation assistance benefits as an eligible relocating head of household pursuant to 25 U.S.C. Sec. 640d-14. In their application, the Bedonis originally listed three children as part of a five-person family to be relocated. At the time of the application, the Bedonis had three children: Darrell, Emerson, and Norma, ages 16, 18, and 22, respectively.

Prior to receiving benefits in December of 1979, the Bedonis removed the names of their children from their application. The Bedonis allege that this modification was motivated by advice and encouragement rendered to them by officials of the NHIRC who informed them that their children were eligible for benefits in their own right and the children's names should accordingly be deleted.

The Bedonis received a total benefit of $44,200. Of this amount, $38,700 was for replacement housing and corresponds to replacement housing benefits given to a family of three or less persons.

In the interim between the Bedonis' application and receipt of benefits, Darrell and Emerson applied separately for relocation benefits. Darrell, age 18 and married at the time of his application, was denied benefits. The certification officer based his denial on two grounds. First, Darrell failed to establish requisite residency on Hopi Partitioned Land ("HPL"). 4 After his emancipation, Darrell failed to maintain the required "substantial recurring contacts" with an identifiable homesite on the JUA. The officer further determined that if Darrell had any claim then or in the past, it was through his parents at the time he was a minor. The officer concluded that since his parents had failed to include Darrell as a dependent minor on their application, he could not assert a separate entitlement claim now based on his residency status prior to his emancipation. The NHIRC affirmed the Certification Officer's denial of benefits pursuant to an administrative appeal.

Emerson's application was initially denied. Upon his producing additional documents satisfying the residency requirement, NHIRC reversed its determination and granted Emerson relocation benefits.

Norma, the Bedonis' daughter, applied for benefits in 1981. She, too, was determined to be ineligible. The Certification Officer determined that Norma, like Darrell, did not meet the requirements of "substantial" and "recurring" contacts sufficient to be a resident, and should have been included in her parents' relocation benefits application. This denial was affirmed on appeal within the NHIRC.

C. Proceedings Below

On October 17, 1985, the Plaintiffs commenced action against the NHIRC, its three commissioners and its executive director. For the purposes of this appeal, the Bedonis' action sought district court review of the NHIRC determination of ineligibility of Darrell under the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. Secs. 706, et seq. In the alternative, if Darrell was properly determined ineligible because he should have been included in his parents' application, the Bedonis sought a declaration under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2201 and injunctive relief under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1361, requiring the NHIRC to pay the Bedonis an additional $18,300. This amount corresponds to the difference between replacement housing benefits given families of four or more persons and what the Bedonis actually received.

Both parties filed summary judgment motions and the district court entered judgment for the NHIRC on Darrell's claim to replacement housing benefits in his own right and the Bedonis' claim, asserted in the alternative, for increased benefits. This appeal ensued.

II. JURISDICTION OF THE DISTRICT COURT

In addition to defending the propriety of the district court's disposition below, NHIRC raises for the first time on appeal the issue of the district court's subject matter jurisdiction to render any decision in this action. The defense of lack of subject matter jurisdiction may be asserted at any time, at either the trial court or appellate level by either party or the court. Mt. Healthy City School District Board of Education v. Doyle, 429 U.S. 274, 278, 97 S.Ct. 568, 571, 50 L.Ed.2d 471 (1977); Amfac Mortgage Corp. v. Arizona Mall of Tempe, Inc. 583 F.2d 426, 439 n. 5 (9th Cir.1978).

The Tucker Act is both a waiver of sovereign immunity and a grant of exclusive jurisdiction to the Court of Claims to decide monetary claims in excess of $10,000 "against the United States [or its agencies] founded either upon ... any Act of Congress, or any regulation of an executive department, or upon any express or implied contract with the United States...." 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1346(a)(2) and Sec. 1491(a)(1). District courts have concurrent jurisdiction of claims against the United States and federal agencies for less than $10,000. Id.

The district courts, in contrast, have "original jurisdiction of all civil actions arising under the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States." 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1331. Pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act, waiving governmental immunity, 5 the district court may exercise its Section 1331 jurisdiction by reviewing agency action where the relief sought is non-monetary and the claim avers a failure by a federal agency to act as required by law. 5 U.S.C. Sec. 702. The scope of judicial review of agency decisions by district courts is limited, however, by the "preclusion-of-review statutes created or retained by Congress" to which 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1331 is subject. Califano v. Sanders, 430 U.S. 99 105, 97 S.Ct. 980, 984, 51 L.Ed.2d 192 (1977).

The Tucker Act is one such limiting statute where the relief sought is monetary and in excess of $10,000. Northside Lumber Co. v. Block, 753 F.2d 1482, 1484 (9th Cir.1985); Rowe v. United States, 633 F.2d 799, 802 (9th Cir.1980). This Court has repeatedly stated, however, that the Tucker Act "does not preclude review of agency action where the relief sought is other than monetary damages." Northside Lumber, 753 F.2d at 1485, Laguana Hermosa Corp. v. Martin, 643 F.2d 1376, 1379 (9th Cir.1981); Rowe, 633 F.2d at 802.

The district court is prohibited from evading the preclusive effect of the Tucker Act or infringing upon the exclusive province of the Court of...

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