Bedoni v. Navajo-Hopi Indian Relocation Com'n

• Decision Date: 20 June 1989
• Docket Number: NAVAJO-HOPI,No. 87-1818,87-1818
• Citation: 878 F.2d 1119
• Parties: Darrell 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.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 1119

878 F.2d 1119

Darrell BEDONI and his parents, Sidney Bedoni and Lena Bedoni, husband and wife, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. NAVAJO-HOPI 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.

No. 87-1818.

United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted Nov. 10, 1987.

Decided June 20, 1989.

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

Maria A. Hzuka, 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 ^*, Senior District Judge.

SAMUEL P. KING, Senior District Judge:

INTRODUCTION

When this matter last appeared before the panel, we concluded that the redress sought by plaintiffs, i.e., monetary relief in excess of $10,000 against a United States agency, divested the district court of jurisdiction under certain limiting provisions of the Tucker Act. See 28 U.S.C. Secs. 1346(a)(2), 1491(a)(1). We therefore vacated the judgment of the district court and remanded for consideration of whether in the interest of justice the matter should be transferred to the court of claims.

On November 16, 1988, Congress enacted the Navajo and Hopi Indian Relocation Amendments of 1988. Section 10 therein provides an exception to the Tucker Act:

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, appeals from any eligibility determination of the Relocation Commission, irrespective of the amount in controversy, shall be brought in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona.

25 U.S.C. Sec. 640d-14(g) (emphasis added) ("the Amendment").

Defendants argue that the Amendment should be presumed to effect a change in the law and that it should not apply retroactively to the case at bar. We disagree. The mere fact that Congress amended the Settlement Act does not indicate that it intended to change the law. It is the duty of a court in construing a statute to consider the time and circumstances surrounding the enactment as well as the object to be accomplished by it: Callejas v. McMahon, 750 F.2d 729, 731 (9th Cir.1984). This rule of statutory construction also applies to the interpretation of amendatory acts. Id. We think it clear that under the circumstances, the Amendment was intended as a clarification of the original Settlement Act and that we are now free to address the substance of plaintiffs' claims.

Prior to the Amendment, the Settlement Act was ambiguous inasmuch as it failed to state the court to which eligibility appeals were to be taken. However, Congress effectively directed the district court to develop expertise about the complex relocation process by expressly granting the district court jurisdiction over a wide range of disputes arising therefrom. See, e.g., 25 U.S.C. Secs. 640d-3(a), 640d-3(b), 640d-5, 640d-7 and 640d-17. It is therefore reasonable to assume that Congress also intended that the district court review appeals of relocation-benefits claims.

Further, the purpose of the Settlement Act was to "take into account all the social, economic, cultural, and other adverse impacts on persons involved in the relocation and ... to avoid or minimize [them]," see S.Rep. No. 1177, 93 Cong., 2d Sess. 35 (1974), and "to take cognizance of the hardships that the relocatees are subject to and develop procedures [accordingly]," see S.Rep. No. 1158, 95th Cong., 2d Sess. 4 (1978). The vast majority of relocatees do not have the resources to litigate their claims in the distant court of claims. We thus conclude that Congress's original intention was that all relocation-related matters, including relocation-benefits appeals, be brought in local district courts.

Principles of statutory construction further buttress our conclusion. Where, as here, an act is ambiguous, an amendment thereto " '[is] an indication that [it] is intended to clarify, rather than change, the existing law.' " Callejas, 750 F.2d at 731 (citing Brown v. Marquette Sav. and Loan Ass'n, 686 F.2d 608, 615 (7th Cir.1982)). See also Begay v. Kerr-McGee Corp., 499 F.Supp. 1317, 1325 (D.Ariz.1980).

Here, Congress enacted the Amendment just three months after we determined that the Bedonis' appeal from the NHIRC's eligibility determination was within the exclusive jurisdiction of the court of claims. Faced with the ambiguity in the Settlement Act regarding the forum in which appeals from denials of relocation-benefits could be heard, we were constrained by the Tucker Act's grant of exclusive jurisdiction to the court of claims in cases where more than $10,000 was sought against a United States agency. Based on the foregoing considerations, it is manifest that Congress originally intended that relocation-benefits appeals arising prior to the Amendment also be heard in the district court, and that the Amendment is properly viewed as a legislative interpretation or clarification of the original Act. See Callejas, 750 F.2d at 731. The jurisdictional bar thus lifted, we address the merits of plaintiffs' claims.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS BELOW

Sidney and Lena Bedoni ("the Bedonis") and their son Darrell Bedoni ("Darrell") (collectively "plaintiffs") appeal the district court's grant of the Navajo-Hopi Indian Relocation Commission's ("NHIRC") motion for summary judgment on Darrell's claim to replacement housing benefits and on the Bedonis' alternative claim to increased replacement housing benefits. We affirm the district court's judgment in part and reverse and remand in part.

In 1882 President Arthur established, by Executive Order, a 2.5 million acre reservation in northeastern Arizona for use by the Hopi Indians and "such other Indians as the Secretary of the Interior may see fit to settle thereon." Exec. Order of December 16, 1882. Members of the Navajo Tribe subsequently migrated to the reservation and settled. The Hopi and Navajo Tribes coexisted on the 1882 reservation for 75 years, but became entangled in a struggle as to which Tribe had a clear right to the reservation lands.

In 1962, after a thorough analysis of the controversy between the two Tribes, the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona determined that the Hopi and Navajo Tribes held joint, undivided and equal interest in five-sixths of the reservation. See 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 jointly held area is referred to as the Joint Use Area ("JUA"). The Healing court further determined that it could not partition the JUA; the original congressional act granting either Tribe the right to initiate a quiet title action did not give the court the power to do so. See Act of July 22, 1958, Pub.L. No. 85-547, 72 Stat. 403.

The establishment of the JUA failed to solve the inter-tribal conflicts over the lands thereon. Congress re-entered the fray in 1974 and passed the Settlement Act, which provided for the appointment of a mediator to assist in negotiating a settlement and partition of the JUA. See 25 U.S.C. Secs. 640d--640d-28. In the event that the mediator's efforts failed, the statute granted the district court residual authority to make a final partition of the JUA. The Tribes were unable to reach a voluntary settlement, prompting the district court to enter a judgment of final partition in 1977, which we ultimately approved. See Sekaquaptewa v. MacDonald, 626 F.2d 113 (9th Cir.1980).

The Settlement Act directed the creation of the NHIRC, which was commissioned with the task of relocating Navajo and Hopi residents who, as a result of the court-ordered partition, were located on lands allocated to the other Tribe. See 25 U.S.C. Secs. 640d-12--640d-15. The scope of the NHIRC's authority included, among other things, 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).

The Bedonis, a Navajo family, applied to the NHIRC for relocation assistance benefits in 1977. In their application, the Bedonis originally listed three children as part of a five-person family to be relocated: 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 assert 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 that the childrens' 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 NHIRC affirmed the Certification Officer's denial of benefits upon internal administrative appeal. Emerson's application was initially denied. After having provided additional documentation of his residency, however, the NHIRC reversed its determination and granted him relocation benefits.

Norma applied for benefits in 1981. She too was determined to be ineligible. This denial was also affirmed on appeal within the NHIRC.

On October 17, 1985, plaintiffs commenced suit against the NHIRC, its three commissioners and its executive director. For purposes of this appeal, plaintiffs' action sought district court review under the Administrative Procedure Act of the NHIRC's determination of Darrell's ineligibility. See 5 U.S.C. Sec. 706. Alternatively,...