Griffith v. Choctaw Casino Of Pocola

• Decision Date: 12 April 2010
• Docket Number: No. 104,887.,104
• Citation: 230 P.3d 488,2009 OK 51
• Parties: Dorothy GRIFFITH, Plaintiff/Appellant,v.CHOCTAW CASINO OF POCOLA, Oklahoma, and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, Defendants/Appellees.
• Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court

230 P.3d 488
2009 OK 51

Dorothy GRIFFITH, Plaintiff/Appellant,
v.
CHOCTAW CASINO OF POCOLA, Oklahoma, and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, Defendants/Appellees.

No. 104,887.

Supreme Court of Oklahoma.

June 30, 2009.
Rehearing Denied April 12, 2010.

230 P.3d 489

On Appeal from the District Court, Leflore County, Oklahoma, The Honorable Ted A. Knight, District Judge.
¶ 0 Dorothy Griffith filed a petition in the state district court against the Choctaw Nation and its casino in Pocola, Oklahoma, to recover tort damages. The Choctaw Nation moved to dismiss on the basis of tribal sovereign immunity. The district court dismissed the petition. Griffith appealed. We retained the appeal to address an issue of statewide importance: Whether the state district court is a “court of competent jurisdiction” as that phrase is used in the statutory class III gaming compact, 3A O.S.Supp.2004, § 281, offered to federally recognized Indian tribes in Oklahoma.
DISMISSAL ORDER OF THE DISTRICT COURT REVERSED; CAUSE REMANDED FOR FURTHER PROCEEDINGS.
Eddie A. McCroskey, Poteau, OK, for plaintiff/appellant.

Eric D. Janzen and Brett D. Cable, McAlester, OK, for defendants/appellees.

PER CURIAM.

¶ 1 One question is presented in this appeal: Is the state district court a court of competent jurisdiction as used in the gaming compact between the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and the State of Oklahoma such that the district court may exercise jurisdiction over this Indian-country arising negligence action filed by a casino patron against the Choctaw tribe and its casino? We answer in the affirmative.

I. Facts and Proceedings

¶ 2 The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, a federally recognized Indian tribe ¹ (Tribe), owns a casino which it operates through its tribal enterprise, the Choctaw Casino of Pocola,

230 P.3d 490

Oklahoma (casino). The Tribe offers class III gaming ² to its casino's patrons pursuant to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, 25 U.S.C. §§ 2701-2722 (1988), and the State-Tribal Gaming Act, 3A O.S.Supp.2004, §§ 261- 281, which includes the statutory “Model Tribal Gaming Compact” (compact) id. § 281, signed by the Tribe and effective February 9, 2005.³

¶ 3 Dorothy Griffith ⁴ (Griffith) went to the casino on February 11, 2005. According to Griffith, as she and other patrons approached an entrance to the casino, she heard a casino guard directing patrons to the north entrance. As Griffith followed the others toward the north entrance, she stepped into a flowerbed and fell on her face and head. Griffith was treated in a hospital emergency room in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Griffith claimed her injuries were caused by the negligence of the casino employees and agents. Griffith submitted notice of tort claim to the casino and the Tribe pursuant to the compact.⁵ When the Tribe and the casino failed to act upon the tort claim, it was deemed denied.

¶ 4 Griffith filed a tort action in the state district court in LeFlore County against the casino and the Tribe. The Tribe moved to dismiss the tort action on the basis of tribal sovereign immunity from suit in state court, arguing that Oklahoma state courts may not exercise jurisdiction over a sovereign Indian tribe unless Congress or the Indian tribe has clearly consented to suit in state court or otherwise clearly waived tribal immunity. Griffith responded that the Tribe consented to suit in the compact which states the “tribe consents to suit on a limited basis with respect to tort claims” and the “tribe consents to suit against the enterprise in a court of competent jurisdiction with respect to tort claims.” The Tribe argued that exclusive jurisdiction over tort claims arising in Indian country against the Tribe was vested in the tribal courts at the time the compact was executed; the compact preserved the tribal court's exclusive jurisdiction by declaring that the compact does not alter tribal, federal or state adjudicatory jurisdiction; and therefore, the consent to suit in a court of competent jurisdiction in the compact is consent to suit in tribal court only. The Honorable Ted A. Knight, Judge of the District Court, concluded that tribal courts and federal courts have jurisdiction over Indian tribes but state courts do not and dismissed the action.

¶ 5 Griffith appealed the dismissal. The Tribe moved to make this appeal a companion to the appeal from the same district court in Dye v. Choctaw Casino of Pocola, Oklahoma, No. 104,737, 2009 OK 52, 230 P.3d 507. The meaning of the phrase “court of competent jurisdiction” as used in the compact is also a pivotal issue in the Dye case. This Court denied the motion, noting the related Dye case, and assigned the appeal to the Court of Civil Appeals. Thereafter, this Court received a certified question as to whether the district court in Rogers County, Oklahoma, is a “court of competent jurisdiction” as that phrase is used in the tribal gaming compact between the Cherokee Nation and the State of Oklahoma in Cossey v. Cherokee Nation Enterprises, LLC, No. 105,300. We withdrew this case from assignment to the Court of Civil Appeals.

230 P.3d 491

¶ 6 We recently handed down our opinion in Cossey v. Cherokee Nation Enterprises, LLC, 2009 OK 6, 212 P.3d 447, (mandate issued June 11, 2009), holding that the state district court is a court of competent jurisdiction as that phrase is used in the Cherokee Nation's tribal gaming compact. Today, in separate opinions in this case and in the related case of Dye v. Choctaw Casino of Pocola, Oklahoma, 2009 OK 52, 230 P.3d 507 we determine that Oklahoma district courts are courts of competent jurisdiction as that phrase is used in Oklahoma's statutory model tribal gaming compact and therefore the state courts may exercise jurisdiction over the tort claims against the Choctaw Nation and its casino in Pocola, Oklahoma.

II. Standard of Review

¶ 7 A compact is defined as “an interstate [intergovernmental] agreement entered into to handle a particular problem or task.” Webster's New International Dictionary 461 (3rd ed.1961). The Tribe urges that the compact is a purely private contractual matter. However, the Model Tribal Gaming Compact may not be viewed as an ordinary private contract because it is a voter-approved statute codified in the Oklahoma Statutes. The compact is public law and must be interpreted by use of canons of statutory construction. Statutory construction is a question of law which we review de novo, without deference to the lower court. Twin Hills Golf & Country Club, Inc. v. Town of Forest Park, 2005 OK 71, ¶ 5, 123 P.3d 5, 6.

III. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA)

¶ 8 In 1987, the United States Supreme Court decided that an Indian tribe may operate bingo games on an Indian reservation located in a state that permits gaming for any purpose and that state law does not apply to bingo games played predominantly by non-Indians coming onto the Indian reservation. California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, 480 U.S. 202, 107 S.Ct. 1083, 94 L.Ed.2d 244 (1987). The Cabazon ruling impelled Congress to legislate in the area. Senate Report No. 100-446, reprinted in 1988 U.S.C.C.A.N. 3071 (S.Rep. No. 100-446).

¶ 9 Congress had considered the problems and benefits of Indian gaming in committee hearings for at least three years before Cabazon. Congress enacted Public Law 100-446, finding that gaming was a means of economic development for the tribes that would promote tribal self-sufficiency and strengthened tribal governments. 102 Stat. 2467 (1988). In Public Law 100-446, Congress legalized gaming in Indian country ⁶ and provided a statutory framework for regulating gaming in Indian country in IGRA.⁷

¶ 10 Congress attempted to balance the federal, tribal and state interests in Indian gaming through a system of joint regulation in IGRA. ⁸ IGRA established three classes of Indian gaming. Id. § 2703(6), (7) and (8). As to class I gaming (social games with prizes of minimal value and tribal ceremonial or celebrating games), tribal regulation is exclusive. Id. § 2710(a). As to class II gaming (bingo games played with cards, pull-tabs, lotto, punch boards and other games similar to bingo games played with cards), tribal regulation is subject to approval and oversight of the National Indian Gaming Commission. Id. § 2710(b). As to class III

230 P.3d 492

gaming (all gambling not included in class I or class II gaming), tribal regulation is subject to the terms of an agreement between the tribe and the state, a tribal-state compact. Id. § 2710(d).

¶ 11 In creating the tribal-state compact system and authorizing state regulation of gambling in Indian country, IGRA does not specifically address the subjects of damages to members of the public that may be caused by wrongful activity of Indian tribes and the judicial relief against the tribes. Instead, IGRA specifically authorizes the tribes and states to compact as to “any other subjects that are directly or indirectly related to the operation of gaming activities.” Id. § 2710(d)(3)(C)(vii). Tribes and states may allocate the applicable law and forum for adjudication of patron tort claims. Id. § 2710(d)(3)(C)(i), (ii).

IV. The State-Tribal Gaming Act and The Model Tribal Gaming Compact

¶ 12 In 1988, the Oklahoma Legislature authorized the Governor to negotiate and enter into cooperative agreements with federally recognized Indian tribes in furtherance of federal policy and state-tribal relations, subject to approval by a legislative Joint Committee on State-Tribal Relations. ⁹ At that time, Oklahoma permitted pari-mutuel wagering on horse races. Our governors negotiated and entered into off-track wagering compacts with numerous Indian tribes.¹⁰ The compacts are filed with the Oklahoma Secretary of the State as required by law.¹¹

230 P.3d 493

74 O.S.2001, § 1221(E). Two compacts with the Tribe in this case, filed with the Oklahoma Secretary of State on December 5, 1996, and March 28, 2001, allow that a tort claim against the Tribe may be filed in a court of competent...