Pembina Treaty Committee v. Lujan, 92-1645

• Decision Date: 04 December 1992
• Docket Number: No. 92-1645,92-1645
• Citation: 980 F.2d 543
• Parties: PEMBINA TREATY COMMITTEE; Mary Cornelius; Alice Siroti; Juliane Wilkie; Flora Redding, Appellants, v. Manual LUJAN, in his official capacity as Secretary of the Interior; Jerry Jaeger, in his official capacity as Aberdeen Area Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs; Doreen Bruce, in her official capacity as Acting Superintendent of the Turtle Mountain Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs; Indian Health Service; Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 543

980 F.2d 543

24 Fed.R.Serv.3d 510

PEMBINA TREATY COMMITTEE; Mary Cornelius; Alice Siroti Juliane Wilkie; Flora Redding, Appellants, v. Manual LUJAN, in his official capacity as Secretary of the Interior; Jerry Jaeger, in his official capacity as Aberdeen Area Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Doreen Bruce, in her official capacity as Acting Superintendent of the Turtle Mountain Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs; Indian Health Service; Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, Appellees.

No. 92-1645.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Nov. 9, 1992.

Decided Dec. 4, 1992.

Vance Gillette, Devils Lake, N.D., argued for appellants.

Robert L. Klarquist, Washington, D.C., argued for Lujan (Barry M. Hartman, Thornton W. Field and John T. Stahr, on brief).

Mason D. Morisset, Seattle, Wash., argued for Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians.

Before McMILLIAN, Circuit Judge, FRIEDMAN, ^* Senior Circuit Judge, and MORRIS SHEPPARD ARNOLD, Circuit Judge.

MORRIS SHEPPARD ARNOLD, Circuit Judge.

As the result of a lawsuit several years ago, the U.S. Treasury and the Congress set aside approximately $52 million to be distributed to five groups of Pembina Chippewa Indians. One of those groups is the Turtle Mountain Band, a federally recognized tribe living in North Dakota. By statute passed in 1982, Congress established a mechanism for distributing the money. Under the act, 80 percent of the money allocated to the Turtle Mountain Band was to be distributed directly to members of that tribe. The remaining 20 percent was to be held in trust and invested by the Secretary of the Interior for the benefit of the tribe. Interest from the money held in trust is to be disbursed to the governing body of the tribe "on an annual budgetary basis subject to the approval of the Secretary" for tribal administration or social and economic programs. See Pub.L. No. 97- 403, § 3, 96 Stat. 2022, 2022-23 (Dec. 31, 1982).

Pursuant to that law, the federal trustees for the trust money released approximately $4.4 million in interest to the tribal council of the Turtle Mountain Band in early 1989 and approximately $3.7 million in interest in the summer of 1991. Shortly thereafter, a group of individual tribe members, known as the Pembina Treaty Committee, sued for a declaratory judgment that the federal trustees had breached their fiduciary duty by their failure to require an annual budget from the tribal council before releasing the money. The plaintiffs also asked the trial court to declare that the tribal council's spending plan for 1991 was invalid and for orders requiring any money unspent by the tribal council to be held in escrow pending the adoption of a valid spending plan by the federal trustees and requiring an accounting from the trustees of the amount anticipated to be available every year in interest disbursements. The plaintiffs also asked for a preliminary injunction effecting the relief prayed for. Defendants named in the suit were the Secretary of the Interior, various officials of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Turtle Mountain Band itself.

The tribe moved for its dismissal from the suit on the ground of sovereign immunity. The federal defendants then moved for dismissal of the entire complaint, asserting that the tribe was an indispensable party. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 19(b). The trial court granted both motions. The plaintiffs appeal. The only issue on appeal is whether the trial court abused its discretion in dismissing the entire complaint due to the inability to retain the Turtle Mountain Band as a defendant. We affirm the trial court. ¹

I.

It is apparently undisputed that the tribe itself has sovereign immunity. See, e.g., Oklahoma Tax Commission v. Citizen Band Potawatomi Indian Tribe, 498 U.S. 505, ---- - ----, 111 S.Ct. 905, 909-10, 112 L.Ed.2d 1112 (1991), and Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez, 436 U.S. 49, 58, 98 S.Ct. 1670, 1677, 56 L.Ed.2d 106 (1978). It is also undisputed that the tribe has not waived its immunity in regard to this lawsuit. The issue, then, is whether the tribe must be a party to the suit in order for the suit to proceed.

Under Fed.R.Civ.P. 19(a), the tribe should be a party to the suit, if feasible, if complete relief cannot be accorded to the plaintiffs without the tribe's inclusion or if the tribe claims an interest relating to the suit that could not be adequately protected if the tribe did not participate in the suit. The plaintiffs argue that because their prayer for relief asks only for a declaration of the federal trustees' duties, complete relief could be available to the plaintiffs without involving the tribe itself. In contrast to their argument, however, the plaintiffs' complaint specifically requests the court to invalidate the tribal council's spending plan for 1991 and to order the tribal council to place in escrow any unspent money until a valid spending plan is approved.

In their brief, the plaintiffs declare that they "expressly limit their request for relief" as being against the federal trustees and not against the tribe, "if any confusion remains." They further complain that they could have made this limitation explicit if only the trial court had granted them a hearing on the motions to dismiss. The record contains no indication, however, that they actually requested a hearing in the trial court. In any case, the trial court was within its discretion to decide the motions without a hearing. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 43(e).

The trial court found that the plaintiffs could not obtain the complete relief they sought unless the tribe was a party. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 19(a)(1). The trial court also found that the tribe had an interest in the trust disbursements that could not be adequately protected if the tribe did not participate in the suit. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 19(a)(2). The trial court found, therefore, that the tribe should be a party under ordinary circumstances and turned to the real issue-- whether, since the tribe was immune from suit, the suit should proceed at all without the tribe as a party.

II.

Under Fed.R.Civ.P. 19(b), if the tribe cannot be made a party, the trial court "shall determine whether in equity and good conscience" the suit should proceed at all. Under the rule, the matters that the trial court should consider are "to what extent a judgment rendered in the [tribe's] absence might be prejudicial to the [tribe] or those already parties," "the extent to which ... the prejudice can be lessened or avoided" by careful drafting of any judgment, "whether a judgment rendered in the [tribe's] absence will be adequate," and "whether the plaintiff will have an adequate remedy if the action is dismissed." The standard of review for this determination by the trial court is abuse of discretion. See, e.g., South Dakota v. Bourland, 949 F.2d 984, 989 (8th Cir.1991), cert. granted, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 51, 121 L.Ed.2d 21 (1992). The trial court's ultimate conclusion, after a review of these considerations, was that any judgment against the federal trustees would jeopardize the tribe's ability to use money that had already been disbursed to it under spending plans that had already been approved and would thus imperil the tribe's right to self-governance. The trial court concluded that the plaintiffs would have no other recourse if the suit was dismissed, but found that the tribe's...