N. Cheyenne Tribe v. Roman Catholic Church

• Decision Date: 12 March 2013
• Docket Number: No. DA 12–0010.,DA 12–0010.
• Citation: 296 P.3d 450,368 Mont. 330
• Parties: The NORTHERN CHEYENNE TRIBE, a Sovereign Indian Tribe of the United States and as a Nation of People, both Individually and Collectively, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. The ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH; by and through its Corporate and other Business Entities, to include, but not limited to, The DIOCESES OF GREAT FALLS/BILLINGS; St. Labre Indian School Educational Association, Inc., St. Labre Home for Indian Children and Youth, Inc., and John Does I–X, Defendants and Appellees.
• Court: Montana Supreme Court

368 Mont. 330

296 P.3d 450

The NORTHERN CHEYENNE TRIBE, a Sovereign Indian Tribe of the United States and as a Nation of People, both Individually and Collectively, Plaintiff and Appellant,

v.The ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH; by and through its Corporate and other Business Entities, to include, but not limited to, The DIOCESES OF GREAT FALLS/BILLINGS; St. Labre Indian School Educational Association, Inc., St. Labre Home for Indian Children and Youth, Inc., and John Does I–X, Defendants and Appellees.

No. DA 12–0010.

Supreme Court of Montana.

Submitted on Briefs Aug. 29, 2012.

Decided Feb. 5, 2013.

Rehearing Denied March 12, 2013.

For Appellant: Jackie S. Shields; A. Clifford Edwards; Triel D. Culver; A. Christopher Edwards; Edwards, Frickle & Culver, Billings, Montana.

For Appellees: Maxon R. Davis; Jeffry M. Foster; Davis, Hatley, Haffeman & Tighe, P.C., Great Falls, Montana (Diocese), Herbert I. Pierce, III, Jeffery J. Oven, Crowley Fleck PLLP, Billings, Montana.

Justice BRIAN MORRIS delivered the Opinion of the Court.

¶ 1 The Northern Cheyenne Tribe (NCT) appeals from an order of the Thirteenth Judicial District Court, Yellowstone County that granted summary judgment on all of NCT's claims. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand.

¶ 2 Our resolution of NCT's appeal requires us to address the following issues:

¶ 3 Whether the District Court properly granted summary judgment to St. Labre on NCT's claims of unjust enrichment, constructive trust, and forensic accounting?

¶ 4 Whether the District Court properly granted summary judgment to St. Labre on NCT's claims of breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation, fraud, and wrongful conversion?

¶ 5 Whether the District Court properly granted judgment on the pleadings to St. Labre on NCT's cultural genocide and constitutional claims?

FACTS AND PROCEDURE

¶ 6 NCT brings its claims both individually, as a tribal entity, and collectively, on behalf of the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Members. NCT names “The Roman Catholic Church” as the lead defendant in the suit. NCT also names in the suit “The Roman Catholic Church by and through its Corporate and other Business Entities, to include, but not limited to, The Dioceses of Great Falls/Billings.” We refer to these defendants collectively as “the Diocese.”

¶ 7 NCT also names the St. Labre Indian School Education Association, Inc. and the St. Labre Home for Indian Children and Youth. St. Labre Indian School Educational Association, Inc. is a Catholic school that offers preschool through high school education. St. Labre Home for Indian Children and Youth provides community support that includes housing to at-risk children who attend the St. Labre Indian School. Both entities appear to have the same interests in this suit and have been represented by the same counsel. We refer to the two entities collectively as “St. Labre.”

¶ 8 A Catholic nun first claimed the majority of the land upon which St. Labre sits in April 1884, as grounds for the St. Labre Mission School. President Chester Alan Arthur issued an executive order to create a reservation for the “use and occupation of the Northern Cheyenne Indians in November 1884.” President Arthur exempted from transfer to the Northern Cheyenne those lands “which have been located, resided upon, and improved by bona fide settlers, prior to the 1st day of October, 1884.” St. Labre was settled approximately six months before the October 1, 1884 deadline.

¶ 9 President William McKinley issued an executive order to expand the size of the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in 1900. The order explicitly exempted from transfer tracts of land “belonging to the [St. Labre's] Mission.” The United States Government later enacted the Northern Cheyenne Allotment Act (Act) in 1926. The Act reaffirmed the lands originally set out by President McKinley in 1900 to be the property of the Northern Cheyenne Indians and to be “for the permanent use and occupation of the Northern Cheyenne Indians.”

¶ 10 Section 4 of the Act detailed exempted lands. These exempted lands included those used by St. Labre “so long as they continue to be used solely in the advancement of religious and welfare work for the benefit of the Northern Cheyenne Indians.” The Secretary of the Interior granted St. Labre's request in 1929 for “temporary use and occupancy” of 2.5 additional acres of land. St. Labre retains use of these lands.

¶ 11 The United States Government originally funded St. Labre based on the number of attending students. St. Labre closed its high school through the late 1930's and 1940's due to financial problems. Enrollment decreased to 41 students and St. Labre suffered a corresponding loss in aid.

¶ 12 St. Labre began a direct mail fundraising campaign in 1952 that aimed to offset its decrease in government funding. St. Labre has relied on this private fundraising almost exclusively since 1952. St. Labre raises millions of dollars annually. Its current endowment reaches approximately $90 million dollars. NCT alleges that St. Labre raised between $27 and $30 million for two of the four years before the filing of its complaint.

¶ 13 St. Labre runs its fundraising efforts through a direct mail campaign. St. Labre titled its fundraising letter associated with the direct mail campaign “ The Race of Sorrows.” An Army officer in the 1880's coined the phrase to characterize the Northern Cheyenne Tribe.

¶ 14 NCT asserts that St. Labre has raised millions of dollars through its fundraising efforts that market the plight and need of NCT. NCT submitted as exhibits a number of The Race of Sorrows letters. A fundraising letter from 1970 describes the purpose of St. Labre:

Education of the young; opportunity of self-support for the adults, improvement of the economic and social status of the Northern Cheyenne, once called the Race of Sorrows because of their sorry plight, have been the goals of St. Labre, the only reasons for its existence.

Sample letters detail stories in which Northern Cheyenne parents seek aid with house payments and heating bills, children in need of shoes, and other similar depictions of impoverishment.

¶ 15 NCT and St. Labre have enjoyed a mixed relationship over the years. A commentator characterized the perception of NCT at the time of the development of St. Labre: “Cheyenne people viewed the priest as a means to improve their material condition on the reservation and as an intermediary who might speak for the Cheyenne people to federal officials.” Suzanne H. Schrems, The Northern Cheyennes and the Fight for Cultural Sovereignty, Montana: The Magazine of Western History 18, 22 (Spring 1995). St. Labre has provided financial support to individual Tribal Members. NCT argues, however, that St. Labre's financial contributions have been irregular and insufficient relative to the fundraising totals that St. Labre has achieved.

¶ 16 St. Labre's disbursement of funds raised through its direct mail campaign appears to have served as a long-standing dispute between St. Labre and NCT. The District Court traced this dispute back to at least 1984 when NCT set up a task force to address the disbursement issue. The Tribal President sought an accounting from St. Labre in 1997. NCT alleged that St. Labre had been soliciting money “for and on behalf of the Northern Cheyenne people,” but that the funds were not going regularly to NCT.

¶ 17 NCT asserts that St. Labre “consistently” made disbursements or donations to NCT whenever NCT demanded a right to a share of the funds. NCT claims that it always took issue with the timing and the amount of the disbursements from St. Labre. NCT alleges that St. Labre never actually refused to provide NCT with at least some access to these funds until January 28, 2005. NCT argues that St. Labre's outright denial of access to these funds finally prompted NCT to file the current lawsuit. NCT filed this action on March 11, 2005.

¶ 18 NCT alleges nine separate causes of action in its amended complaint. We categorize these claims into three general groups. The first group involves allegations that St. Labre's fundraising system created a constructive trust on behalf of NCT. NCT alleges that St. Labre wrongfully has converted these funds to its own use, and, as a result, unjustly has enriched itself. NCT's second group of claims alleges contract and fraud type issues. The third group of claims alleges a constitutional tort in which St. Labre has committed cultural genocide against NCT in violation of Article II, Sections 3, 4, and 10 of the Montana Constitution.

¶ 19 The District Court granted St. Labre's motion for judgment on the pleadings on NCT's cultural genocide claim and its constitutional claims upon which NCT had predicated its cultural genocide claim. The District Court granted summary judgment on NCT's contract related claims due to NCT's failure to produce any evidence that an express or implied contract existed between NCT and St. Labre. The District Court also granted summary judgment on NCT's constructive trust claim and determined that the statute of limitations barred NCT's unjust enrichment claims that arose from St. Labre's fundraising that had taken place before March 2002. The District Court finally determined that NCT's failure to prove that NCT had suffered any loss barred its unjust enrichment claims that arose from St. Labre's fundraising after March 2002.

¶ 20 The District Court granted the Diocese's motion for summary judgment on all of NCT's claims based on “the same rational” that it had granted St. Labre's motions. NCT appeals.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 21 We review for correctness a district court's grant for judgment on the pleadings. Ritter v. Bill Barrett Corp., 2009 MT 210, ¶ 10, 351 Mont. 278, 210 P.3d 688. We review de novo a district court's grant of summary judgment. Dubiel v. Mont. Dept. of Transp., 2012 MT 35, ¶ 10, 364 Mont. 175, 272 P.3d 66. Summary judgment represents an extreme remedy that should be granted only when no material factual...