Cayuga Indian Nation of New York v. Pataki, 80-CV-930.
| Decision Date | 11 March 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. 80-CV-930.,No. 80-CV-960.,80-CV-930.,80-CV-960. |
| Citation | 188 F.Supp.2d 223 |
| Parties | THE CAYUGA INDIAN NATION OF NEW YORK, et al., Plaintiffs, and The Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma and the United States of America, Plaintiff-Intervenors, v. George E. PATAKI, as Governor of the State of New York, et. al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of New York |
Rubinbaum LLP, New York City (Martin R. Gold, Raymond J. Heslin, of counsel), for Cayuga Indian Nation of New York.
Mariscal Weeks McIntryre & Friedlander, Phoenix, AZ (Glenn M. Feldman, Brian Mueller, of counsel), for Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma.
Hank Meshorer, Special Litigation Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice, Environment & Natural Division, Washington, D.C. (Roger R. Martella, Jr., Asst. Section Chief Indian, Resources Section of counsel), for U.S.
Hon. Eliot Spitzer, Attorney General of the State of New York, Albany, NY (David B. Roberts, Howard L. Zwickel, Christopher Hall, John Pickett, Assistant Attorneys General, of counsel), for State defendants.
Huber Lawrence & Abell, New York City (Theodore F. Duver, of counsel), for New York State Elec. & Gas Corp.
Goodwin Procter & Hoar, Boston, MA (Anthony M. Feeherry, of counsel), for Miller Brewing and De. Class.
Harris Beach & Wilcox, Rochester, NY (Brian Laudadio, of Counsel), for Def. Counties.
The court assumes familiarity with this protracted land claim litigation, spanning more than two decades, based upon transactions occurring over two hundred years ago, and generating no less than 17 written decisions. Following two separate trials, on October 2, 2001, the court entered judgment in this case in the amount of $247,911,999.42, representing the jury's February 17, 2000, damage award of $36,911,672.62, and the court's subsequent prejudgment interest award of $211,000,326.80.
Not unexpectedly, entry of this judgment resulted in a flurry of motion activity. On October 17, 2001, three sets of motions were filed: (1) post-judgment motions setting forth six different grounds for relief on behalf of the State itself, as well as on behalf of the various State agencies and individual agency heads named in the original complaints ("the State");1 (2) motions by the Cayuga Indian Nation of New York and the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma ("the tribal plaintiffs") to amend the judgment and a "conditional motion" for a new trial; and (3) the non-State defendants'2 motion to amend the judgment. Several days later, on October 22, 2001, the plaintiff-intervenor the United States of America ("U.S.") filed a motion seeking to dismiss all defendants except the State from its complaint in intervention.
For analytical purposes, these motions can be broadly divided into two categories — those pertaining to amendment of the judgment and those seeking a new trial. In the former group are: (1) the non-State defendants' motion to amend the judgment pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 52(b) and 59(e), making it final as against all parties; (2) the tribal plaintiffs' motion to amend the judgment allowing an immediate appeal of same in accordance with Fed.R.Civ.P. 54(b); and (3) the U.S.' motion to dismiss the non-State defendants from its complaint in intervention. As will be seen, although not identical, these three motions are closely related and hence the court will analyze them together; it will then separately analyze the remaining motions.
The two motions to amend the judgment and the U.S.' motion to dismiss must be viewed in the larger context of this decades-old litigation, and particularly this court's decision in Cayuga Indian Nation of New York v. Pataki, 79 F.Supp.2d 66 (N.D.N.Y.1999) ("Cayuga XI"). Partially to avoid the unfathomable task of "conducting separate jury trials with respect to the approximately 7,000 private individual landowners, as well as the [other] non-State defendants[,]" among other things, in Cayuga XI this court granted the U.S.' motion "to first proceed to trial against the State[.]" Id. at 74. "[T]he only direct opposition" to that motion was from the State "which argue[d] ... that separate trials would be inefficient given that it intends to offer basically the same proof at any and all trials conducted in connection with this action." Id. at 76. The court gave little credence to that opposition argument explaining, "[t]he only possibility of a substantial overlap in proof is remote indeed, ... given the repeated assurances by both the State and federal governments that if the court grants this motion for a separate trial, that will end this litigation." Id.
Then the court went on to enumerate the various assurances made by the U.S., the State and the tribal plaintiffs that once a judgment was entered against the State, those parties would not be pursuing further claims against the non-State defendants. See id. at 76-77. Given those assurances, the court found that "the likelihood of future subsequent trials seem[ed] all but moot[.]" Id. at 77. The court concluded by "stress[ing] that the non-State defendants, which by court order are not participating in this upcoming trial, are not bound in any way, such as through the application of collateral estoppel or res judicata, by any determinations made in the State's damage trial." Id. at 77-78 (emphasis added). It is against this procedural backdrop which the court is considering the present motions to amend the judgment in this case, as well as the U.S.' motion to dismiss.
Among other things, Rule 52(b) provides that "[o]n a party's motion filed no later than 10 days after entry of judgment, the court may amend its findings — or make additional findings — and may amend the judgment accordingly." Fed.R.Civ.P. 52(b). In accordance with this Rule, the non-State defendants are moving to amend the October 2, 2001 judgment so it is final as against all parties, even though the State was the only defendant participating in Phases I and II. See Affidavit of William Dorr (Oct. 16, 2001) ("Dorr Aff.") at 2, ¶ 2; id. at 4, ¶ 16 (emphasis added); see also Non-State Defendants' Notice of Motion at 1-2.
Offering two distinct bases for this motion, the non-State defendants first assert that the judgment should be amended to indicate that it is final as against all parties because otherwise there is a possible Seventh Amendment violation. Anticipating that despite prior assurances to the contrary, including those made in connection with the U.S.' motion for a separate trial, the plaintiffs will attempt to recover against the non-State defendants in subsequent trials, the non-State defendants are raising the possibility of inconsistent verdicts and hence a violation of the Seventh Amendment's guarantee to a jury trial. More specifically, the non-State defendants reason that in the event of future trials, their Seventh Amendment rights would be violated because a second jury would be reexamining facts and issues previously decided by the jury in Phase I, a proceeding in which those defendants did not participate.
As another reason for amending the judgment herein, the non-State defendants are relying upon the doctrine of judicial estoppel. In general, judicial estoppel "`prevents a party from asserting a factual position in a legal proceeding that is contrary to a position previously taken by [the party] in a prior legal proceeding.'" Bridgeway Corp. v. Citibank, 201 F.3d 134, 141 (2d Cir.2000) (quoting Bates v. Long Island R.R., 997 F.2d 1028, 1037 (2d Cir.1993)). Because in Cayuga XI the tribal plaintiffs, the U.S. and the State vouched that after completing litigation against the State, those parties would not be pursuing further trials against the non-State defendants, see Cayuga XI, 79 F.Supp.2d at 77, the non-State defendants contend that "the tribal plaintiffs and the [U.S.] should be judicially estopped from seeking further trials against th[os]e ... defendants[;]" and based upon that estoppel, the court should amend the judgment to indicate that it is final as against all parties. See Memorandum of Law in Support of the Non-State Defendants' Motion to Amend the Judgment at 7. The non-State defendants are seeking this amendment "so that the judgment is final and the parties may proceed with an appeal of all issues they deem appropriate." Dorr Aff. at 2, ¶ 4. Alternatively, these defendants are "request[ing] that [the court] issue a scheduling order for motions for summary judgment on the issue of damages against the non-State defendants." Id. at 7, ¶ 26.
The State does not oppose this Rule 52(b) motion to amend. But if the court grants such relief, as the State observes, plainly there would be "no need for separate Rule 54(b) certification[,]" such as the tribal plaintiffs are seeking. See State Defendants' Memorandum of Law in Opposition to the Cayuga Plaintiffs' Motion to Amend the Judgment ("St.Oppn.Memo.") at 1, n. 1; and Letter from David Roberts to Court of 11/19/01 ("Roberts Ltr") at 1.
The tribal plaintiffs, on the other hand, do oppose the non-State defendants' motion to amend, reasoning that there is no possible Seventh Amendment violation because this court previously ordered separate trials as opposed to bifurcation. Implicit in this argument is the notion that because any subsequent trials would be wholly separate, there would be no danger of a different jury trying factual issues which were previously decided by the jury in Phase I. Furthermore, the tribal plaintiffs contend that the Seventh Amendment is not implicated here, and thus cannot provide a basis for amending the judgment making it final as against all parties, because in Cayuga XI this court explicitly held that the non-State defendants would not be bound "in any way ... by any determinations made in the State's damage trial." See Cayuga XI, ...
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