Seneca Nation of Indians v. State of N.Y.
| Decision Date | 31 October 1998 |
| Docket Number | No. 85-CV-411C.,85-CV-411C. |
| Parties | SENECA NATION OF INDIANS, Plaintiff, United States of America, Plaintiff-Intervenor, v. STATE OF NEW YORK, George Pataki, as Governor; Joseph Seymour, as Commissioner of General Services; Bernadette Castro, as Commissioner of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation; Joseph and Susan Chiapuso; Howard B. Whitney Estate; Walter L. Whitney; Jane E. Schuck; Kent Sandford; Richard J. and Beverly A. McCutcheon; Albert A. and Lucy Hoffman; Myles and Sandra Barraclough; Duane G. Glover; Paul H. and Virginia M. Geer; Deborah H. Baldwin; Robert L. and Eugenia Jones; Stephen M. Kane; Scott E. and Rosemary N. Fisher; William A. Campbell; David J. Gibson; Clarence J. Coffman, Sr.; Clarence J. Coffman, Jr.; C. James Coffman, Sr., and Jean Coffman; Eileen W. Garling; Robert F. and Susan F. Van Der Horst; Howard and Florence Luzier; Eugene and Lousie Hickey; Phillip and Shirley Confer; David C. and Frances E. Williams; Kenneth Campbell; Frederick Tapp; Susan Bunker, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of New York |
Jeanne Whiteing, Boulder, Colorado, Arlinda F. Locklear, Jefferson, Maryland, for plaintiff.
United States Department of Justice, Environment & Natural Resources Division, Indian Resources Section (Ann C. Juliano, of counsel), Washington, D.C., for plaintiff-intervenor United States.
Dennis C. Vacco, Attorney General of the State of New York (David B. Roberts, Assistant Attorney General, of counsel), Albany, New York, for defendants.
DECISION and ORDER
President Washington ... met with Cornplanter, Chief of the Seneca Nation, shortly after the enactment of the 1790 [Indian Nonintercourse] Act.1 They discussed the Senecas' complaints about land transactions, and Washington assured them that the new statute would protect their interests. Washington told Cornplanter:
The Seneca Nation of Indians ("Senecas") bring the present action seeking a declaration that certain lands on the Senecas' Oil Spring Reservation were illegally appropriated by the State of New York ("State") in violation of the Senecas' treaty rights and in violation of the Indian Nonintercourse Act, 25 U.S.C. § 177,3 and that the transactions involving these lands are therefore void. In addition to declaratory relief quieting title in the various parcels described in its Second Amended Complaint (Item 58), the Senecas seek injunctive relief to prevent the State and any of the named defendants from selling the parcels at issue, damages for the State's alleged trespass to the land, and the ejectment of the individual defendants currently residing on the disputed land (Item 58).
The defendants include the State, the Governor, several State Executive Department officers, and numerous private parties leasing cottage lots on the disputed land from the State. The individual defendants are represented by the State Attorney General's Office; consequently, in this order when the court refers to the State's arguments, the individual defendants are included.
After the suit was filed, extensive settlement negotiations followed without success. Finally, on August 26, 1994, both the Senecas and the defendants filed cross-motions for summary judgment (Items 68 and 69). The parties thoroughly briefed their arguments and submitted affidavits with extensive exhibits. The court did not proceed to decision and issued a stay on August 13, 1996 (Item 102), because the Supreme Court granted certiorari in a case raising similar issues, Coeur d'Alene Tribe of Idaho v. Idaho, 42 F.3d 1244 (9th Cir.1994), cert. granted, 517 U.S. 1132, 116 S.Ct. 1415, 134 L.Ed.2d 541 (1996). After the Supreme Court decided Idaho v. Coeur d'Alene, 521 U.S. 261, 117 S.Ct. 2028, 138 L.Ed.2d 438 (1997), on July 10, 1997, the court set a new briefing schedule.
On August 20, 1997, the United States filed a motion to intervene (Item 105), which the court granted on January 29, 1998 (Item 120). The United States' complaint in intervention (Item 125) seeks to enforce the provisions of the Nonintercourse Act for the benefit of the Senecas and seeks the identical relief as the Senecas' Second Amended Complaint. The United States submitted a motion for summary judgment on August 26, 1997 (Item 109), before the court permitted the government to intervene, in order to comply with the established briefing schedule.
On July 17, 1998, the court heard oral argument on the cross-motions for summary judgment.
The Seneca Nation is a federally recognized tribe that owns the Oil Spring Reservation located in Cattaraugus and Allegany Counties, New York. The Senecas reserved the one-mile square reservation to themselves under the Treaty of November 11, 1794, 7 Stat. 44, between the United States and the Six Nations, of which the Senecas were a member. These lands were reconfirmed to the Senecas under the Treaty of September 15, 1797, 7 Stat. 60, between Robert Morris and the Senecas, a treaty approved by the United States. Under the 1797 Treaty, the Oil Spring Reservation consisted of 640 acres.
In 1858 and the years that followed, the State took possession of the land at issue in this litigation, together with adjacent lands owned by non-Indians through its power of eminent domain as part of a project to construct a dam which would provide water for the Genesee and Erie Canals. The Senecas contend that the State took approximately 47.25 acres belonging to them for this project (Item 71, ¶ 8). Of the 47.25 acres, the State took 13.19 acres for the Oil Creek Reservoir, today known as Cuba Lake, and 2.2 acres for construction of a new road along the reservoir. These parcels form the basis for Count I of both the Senecas' Second Amended Complaint and the United States' Complaint in intervention.
The Senecas allege that the rest of the 47.25 acres were taken by the State as follows: (1) 2.36 acres for the excavation of an outlet from the reservoir; (2) 26.96 acres that the State anticipated would be damaged and flooded by the construction of the reservoir; and (3) 2.53 acres for the deposit of soil from the construction (Item 58, ¶ 37; Item 71, ¶ 9). These parcels form the basis for Count II of both the Senecas' and the United States' complaints. With respect to the 26.96 acres, the State submits that it never took possession of the 26.96 acres; but rather, it had an easement allowing it to flood those acres (Item 86, ¶ 8).
In the years that followed the initial construction of the reservoir, the State passed Chapter 342 of the Laws of 1863, authorizing additional appropriations to raise the water level of the reservoir an additional three feet (Item 69, ¶ 10; Item 86, ¶¶ 9, 11, 14). According to the State, when the water level was raised in accordance with this authority, additional acreage within the reservation was taken (Item 59, ¶ 11). The State asserts that the precise acreage and location of lands flooded when the reservoir level was raised are difficult to ascertain; however, it notes that the Indian Claims Commission ("ICC") found that the appropriation was 3.7 acres (Id., ¶¶ 12-13). The State has identified part of the land it believes was appropriated pursuant to Chapter 342 of the Laws of 1863 (Item 73, Exh. 11, Attachment 1).
The Senecas dispute the State's contentions about this second appropriation (Item 84, ¶¶ 2, 7-8), contending that while the reservoir was raised three feet in about 1864 pursuant to Chapter 342, it was raised an additional six feet in 1869 and an additional two feet in 1872 pursuant to other authorities (Id., ¶ 7). The Senecas assert that there is no evidence that the possession of additional reservation lands was the result of the raising of the reservoir in 1863 pursuant to Chapter 342, and the logical inference to be drawn from these facts is that the additional taking was the result of the last raising of the reservoir in 1872 (Id.). The Senecas insist that neither the ICC nor the Court of Claims made binding findings of a later appropriation of 3.7 acres (Id., ¶ 9).
The Senecas contend that the State took additional lands within the reservation after 1858. In particular, they assert that the State took possession of approximately one acre of land for the purpose of constructing a new road along the reservoir. This parcel forms part of the basis for Count III in both the Senecas' and United States' complaints.
The State Canal Commissioners appropriated the land by a process known as inverse condemnation, by which they entered upon the land and took it without first instituting a condemnation proceeding. Under such a process, the landowner whose land was appropriated could petition court-appointed land appraisers for compensation. NY Rev. Stat., Tit. IX, Arts. 2 & 3 (Weed, Parsons & Co., 2d ed., 1869) (Item 73, Exh. 23). The Senecas brought such a petition, and in a decision dated June 23, 1865, the canal appraisers awarded it $1,319.89 in damages and six years' interest for lands previously appropriated (Item 73, Exh. 11, Attachment 9). The parties disagree as to whether this award was solely compensation for the 47.25 acres appropriated in 1858, or whether the award also encompassed the disputed subsequent appropriations described above. The Senecas contend that there were never any judicial or administrative condemnation proceedings for any of the alleged takings after 1858 (Item 71, ¶ 14; Item 72, at 23-25; Item 84, ¶ 2).
In about 1878, the State abandoned the Genesee Valley Canal but continued to...
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