Estate of Fern Ruby Paul, 55 IBIA 130 (2012)

• Court: Interior Board of Indian Appeals

INTERIOR BOARD OF INDIAN APPEALS Estate of Fern Ruby Paul 55 IBIA 130 (06/22/2012)

United States Department of the Interior

OFFICE OF HEARINGS AND APPEALS INTERIOR BOARD OF INDIAN APPEALS 801 NORTH QUINCY STREET SUITE 300 ARLINGTON, VA 22203

ESTATE OF FERN RUBY PAUL

Order Docketing and Dismissing Appeal Docket No. IBIA 12-085 June 22, 2012

Laverta Rhodes (Appellant) appealed to the Board of Indian Appeals (Board) from a Modification Order (Reopening Order) entered on January 26, 2012, by Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Richard D. Hines. The ALJ reopened and modified an earlier heirship determination in the estate of Appellant’s biological mother, Fern Ruby Paul (Decedent).1 The Reopening Order found that because Appellant had been adopted out, she is not Decedent’s heir under the American Indian Probate Reform Act (AIPRA).2 As a preliminary matter, the Board ordered Appellant to complete service of her notice of appeal on all interested parties (except for the ALJ, who had been served), as required by 43 C.F.R. §§ 4.310(b) and 4.323, and to notify the Board that she had done so. Appellant subsequently notified the Board that she had complied with the order to complete service on interested parties. In the same preliminary order, the Board ordered Appellant to show cause why her appeal should not be dismissed as untimely. In the alternative, and assuming that the Board were to find that the appeal is timely, the Board ordered Appellant to show cause why the Reopening Order should not be summarily affirmed because Appellant had failed to make any objection in response to the ALJ’s Notice of Petition for Reopening and Order to Show Cause. The ALJ had notified the parties that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) had1

[1]. Decedent, who was also known as Fern Ruby Jackson and Fern Ruby Enos, was a Pima Maricopa (Gila River) Indian. The probate number assigned to Decedent’s case in the Department of the Interior’s probate tracking system, ProTrac, is No. P000069817IP.

2

The ALJ reopened Indian Probate Judge Melanie M. Daniel’s July 29, 2010, Decision, which had determined that Appellant was an heir to Decedent. The ALJ applied the general rule found in AIPRA, 25 U.S.C. § 2206(j)(2)(B)(iii)(I), to determine that Appellant is not Decedent’s heir. 55 IBIA 130

petitioned to reopen the estate to remove Appellant as an heir because of her adoption, explained the consequences of granting BIA’s petition, and provided the parties with an opportunity to...