Klamath Tribe Claims Comm. v. United States

• Decision Date: 16 July 2012
• Docket Number: No. 09-75L,09-75L
• Parties: KLAMATH TRIBE CLAIMS COMMITTEE, Plaintiff, v. THE UNITED STATES, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. Claims Court

KLAMATH TRIBE CLAIMS COMMITTEE, Plaintiff,

v.THE UNITED STATES, Defendant.

No. 09-75L

United States Court of Federal Claims

Filed: July 16, 2012

Tribal claims; RCFC 19 - joinder question;

Tribal sovereign immunity; RCFC 19(b) -

whether absence of sovereign, which cannot

be joined in suit and declines invitation to

intervene, requires dismissal; Provident;

Lack of alternative remedy for plaintiff;

Impact of sovereign immunity - Pimentel;

Potential for conflicting claims; Inability of

United States to represent Tribe's interest;

No way to lessen prejudice associated with

proceeding; Dismissal warranted.

OPINION

Thomas W. Fredericks, Louisville, CO, for plaintiff.

Maureen E. Rudolph, Environmental and Natural Resources Division, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., with whom was Assistant Attorney General Ignacia S. Moreno, for defendant.

ALLEGRA, Judge:

The Klamath Tribe Claims Committee (Klamath Claims Committee or plaintiff) seeks damages for alleged takings and breaches of fiduciary duty committed by the Department of the Interior (Interior). It asserts that Interior has failed to disburse funds owed to tribal members and to safeguard treaty-based water rights associated with a dam. On February 11, 2011, the court granted, in part, a motion filed by defendant, and dismissed two of plaintiff's counts for lack of jurisdiction. As to the remaining counts, this court concluded, under RCFC 19, that a necessaryparty, the Klamath Tribes (the Tribes)¹ must be joined. Subsequently, the Tribes declined to participate in this lawsuit. Accordingly, the court must now determine whether the Tribes is an indispensable party under RCFC 19(b). For the reasons that follow, the court concludes that the Tribes, indeed, is an indispensable party and that the inability to join it in this lawsuit requires that the complaint be dismissed.

I. BACKGROUND

A brief recitation of the facts provides necessary context.

The United States and the Tribes entered into a Treaty in 1864. See Treaty between the United States and the Klamath and Moadoc Tribes and Yahooskin Band of Snake Indians, October 14, 1864, 16 Stat. 707 (the Treaty). Under this Treaty, the Tribes ceded their interest in approximately twelve million acres of land, reserving unto themselves approximately 800,000 acres, along with "the exclusive right of taking fish in the streams and lakes, included in said reservation, and of gathering edible roots, seeds, and berries within its limits." Id. In exchange, the federal government gave the Tribes cash and goods worth approximately $300,000. It also committed to provide various services to the Tribes and to hold tribal assets in trust for the benefit of the Tribes and its members. Id. From 1890 to 1920, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) surveyed the reservation for its irrigation potential and constructed irrigation facilities. One such facility was a diversion dam, the Chiloquin Dam (the Dam), that diverted portions of the Sprague River into canals which served lands on the Williamson River and Upper Klamath Lake.

In 1954, Congress passed the Klamath Termination Act (the 1954 Act), Pub. L. No. 83-587, 68 Stat. 718 (codified, as amended, at 25 U.S.C. §§ 564-564x), which ended federal supervision over the Tribes' trust assets and tribal properties, and terminated the federal services furnished to the Tribes. As described by the Court of Claims in an earlier case -

[t]he basic scheme of that statute . . . was to give each adult member whose name appeared on the final tribal roll an election between withdrawing from the tribe and having his interest in tribal property commuted to money to be paid to him, and, on the other hand, remaining in the tribe and participating in a nongovernmental tribal management plan.

Klamath & Modoc Tribes v. United States, 436 F.2d 1008, 1010-11 (Ct. Cl. 1971).² Section 10 of the 1954 Act authorized the government to dispose of federally-owned property acquired for administration of the Tribes or to transfer this property to qualifying entities. 1954 Act § 10 (codified at 25 U.S.C. § 564i). Other provisions in this statute dealt with the federally-owned and operated irrigation facilities on the Klamath Reservation, including the Dam. For example, section 13(a) of the 1954 Act authorized the Secretary to transfer the "care, operation and maintenance" of irrigation works to water users associations or irrigation districts. 1954 Act § 13(a) (codified at 25 U.S.C. § 5641(a)).

Section 13(c) of the 1954 Act "authorized to be appropriated" $89,212 for "payment to the Klamath Tribe[s]" at four percent interest "per annum," calculated from the date of disbursement. 1954 Act § 13(c) (codified at 25 U.S.C. § 564l (c)). The 1954 Act stated that these funds were "reimbursement for tribal funds used for irrigation, construction, operation and maintenance benefitting nontribal lands on the Klamath Reservation." Id. It further directed the Secretary to transfer all personal property or funds that the United States held in trust, free of encumbrance, to tribal members within four years. 1954 Act § 8 (codified at 25 U.S.C. § 564g). The Secretary was directed to arrange for the disposition of the Tribes' property at the earliest practicable time, but not later than August 13, 1958. 1954 Act § 6(b) (codified at 25 U.S.C. § 564e(b)); see also Klamath & Modoc Tribes, 436 F.2d at 1011. Once the restrictions on the Tribes' property were removed, the Secretary was to publish a proclamation in the Federal Register that the trust relationship between the Tribes and the United States was terminated. 1954 Act § 18 (codified at 25 U.S.C. § 564q). Finally, the 1954 Act expressly preserved the Tribes' water and fishing rights as granted under the 1864 Treaty. 1954 Act § 14 (codified at 25 U.S.C. § 564m).

Following the passage of this legislation, approximately seventy-eight percent of the Tribes' members (1,660 of 2,133) chose to withdraw, and defendant used its authority under Section 10 of the Act to sell off much of the Tribes' property to pay these withdrawing members. See Klamath & Modoc Tribes, 436 F.2d at 1011. The Secretary transferred the remaining tribal property to a private trustee to be maintained for those members who chose to remain with the Tribes. In 1955, about a year after the passage of the 1954 Act, Congress appropriated funds to reimburse the Tribes for money expended to construct, operate and maintain irrigation facilities benefiting non-tribal lands. See Dept. of Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 1956, Pub. L. No. 84-78, ch. 147, 69 Stat. 141, 143 (June 16, 1955). In 1961, the Secretarypublished a notice in the Federal Registrar stating that the federal government's relationship with the Tribe was officially terminated. 26 Fed. Reg. 7,362 (Aug. 12, 1961).

On August 21, 1961, the Tribes' governing body passed a resolution giving the Klamath Claims Committee authority to pursue certain claims against the United States. See Joint Resolution of Tribal Councils, March 2008 (describing the earlier resolution). The Klamath Claims Committee represents all 2,133 individuals who appeared on the rolls of the Tribes as of the date of their termination under the 1954 Act. In 1961, the Tribes and several individuals (both withdrawing and remaining members for themselves and as representatives for similarly-situated individuals) filed suit against the United States in the U.S. Court of Claims alleging that the United States effectuated a takings in implementing the 1954 Act. Klamath & Modoc Tribes, 436 F.2d at 1012. In 1962, seventy-three withdrawn members filed a similar suit. Id. at 1013. The Court of Claims consolidated the two cases in 1964. Id. at 1010. The takings claims were eventually settled for approximately $23.5 million. See Klamath & Modoc Tribes v. United States, 199 Ct. Cl. 1024 (Ct. Cl. Sept. 18, 1972). The settlement was effectuated, in part, via legislation passed by Congress in 1965.³

Although the government-to-government relationship between the Tribes and the United States ceased in 1961, BIA took several years to conclude operations and transfer its irrigation project facilities. In 1973, Interior transferred title to the Dam to the Modoc Point Irrigation District (MPID), a non-federal entity chartered under Oregon law, made up of landowners. MPID accepted the transfer in 1974. See Operation and Maintenance Charges, Deletion of Needless Regulations, 44 Fed. Reg. 12,192 (Mar. 6, 1979). In 1979, BIA published a notice deleting all the regulations pertaining to the irrigation system in light of the 1973 transfer of ownership to the MPID. Id. Nevertheless, several court decisions at or around this time confirmed that the Tribes' rights to certain natural resources under the 1864 Treaty survived the passage of the Termination Act. See Kimball v. Callahan, 493 F.2d 564 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 1019 (1974) (treaty-reserved hunting and fishing rights on former reservation lands survived termination); United States v. Adair, 723 F.2d 1394 (9th Cir. 1983), cert. denied, 467 U.S. 1252 (1984) (same as to implied reserved water rights).

In 1986, Congress passed the Klamath Indian Tribe Restoration Act (the Restoration Act), Pub. L. No. 99-398, 100 Stat. 849 (Aug. 27, 1986) (codified at 25 U.S.C. § 566), reestablishing federal recognition of the Tribes. While the Restoration Act restored the Tribes' federal services, as well as the government-to-government relationship between the Tribe and the United States, it did not alter existing property rights. See 25 U.S.C. § 566(d).

Throughout the post-termination and subsequent restoration period, the Klamath Claims Committee believed that it had broad authority to represent the Tribes and its members in tribal litigation. Several resolutions of the Committee reflect this. For example, a 1983 resolution that states that the Tribes' August 21, 1961, grant of authority designated the Klamath Claims Committee as "the post-termination...