U.S. ex rel. Crow Creek Sioux v. Hattum Farms

• Decision Date: 02 February 2000
• Docket Number: No. Civ98-3020.,Civ98-3020.
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, ex. rel. CROW CREEK SIOUX TRIBE, d/b/a Crow Creek Farm Enterprise, Dacotah Farms, Crow Creek Farms, and William Shields, Jr. a member of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, Individually, Plaintiffs, v. HATTUM FAMILY FARMS, Hattum Custom Farms, and Robert Hattum, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of South Dakota

102 F.Supp.2d 1154

UNITED STATES of America, ex. rel. CROW CREEK SIOUX TRIBE, d/b/a Crow Creek Farm Enterprise, Dacotah Farms, Crow Creek Farms, and William Shields, Jr. a member of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, Individually, Plaintiffs, v. HATTUM FAMILY FARMS, Hattum Custom Farms, and Robert Hattum, Defendants.

No. Civ98-3020.

United States District Court, D. South Dakota, Central Division.

February 2, 2000.

Charles Rick Johnson, Johnson, Eklund, Nicholson, Peterson & Fox, Gregory, SD, for plaintiffs.

Robert B. Anderson, May, Adam, Gerdes & Thompson, Pierre, SD, for defendants.

ORDER AS TO SUMMARY JUDGMENT MOTION

KORNMANN, District Judge.

INTRODUCTION

[¶ 1] The Crow Creek Sioux Tribe ("Tribe") and William Shields, Jr. ("Shields"), an enrolled member of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, have brought this action¹ against Hattum Family Farms ("Hattum Farms") and Robert Hattum ("Hattum") to set aside a lien being claimed on the Tribe's crops, to require Hattum to render an accounting of all benefits received from Tribal land, and to recover for damages as to the Tribal land. Defendants have counterclaimed, requesting damages for unpaid salary sums, amounts due on the written contract for custom farming, and damages claimed to be recoverable under theories of unjust enrichment and breaches of contract arising from both the written contract and claimed oral agreements. For all practical purposes, the Tribe dealt with Robert Hattum who did business as Hattum Family Farms or Hattum Custom Farms. No corporate form or other limited liability entity is involved. Payments from the Tribe were made to Hattum personally. Thus, the defendants will be referred to simply as Hattum. Hattum is, in reality, the only defendant since he was simply doing business personally and under two other names. The correct caption as to the "defendants" should have been Robert Hattum, individually and d/b/a Hattum Family Farms and Hattum Custom Farms.

[¶ 2] Plaintiffs filed on July 16, 1999, a motion for partial summary judgment, Doc. 29, arguing that none of the contracts claimed by Hattum as the source of payments owed to him were approved by the Secretary of the Interior pursuant to 25 U.S.C. § 81. Plaintiffs ask the Court to declare all contracts between the Tribe and Hattum null and void and to require Hattum to render a full and complete accounting; plaintiffs also seek a refund of all funds paid to Hattum as a result of the claimed void contracts. Hattum did not respond to this motion. See D.S.D. LR 7.2 (stating that opposing parties have twenty days after the service of a motion to respond). Counsel for Hattum did write to the Court (without filing the document) on August 24, 1999, and stated that the parties had reached an agreement that Hattum could have until September 15 to respond to the pending motion for partial summary judgment, stating also that a stipulation would be forthcoming. No such stipulation or proposed Order has ever been presented. Counsel for Hattum also stated in Doc. 31 filed on August 2, 1999, that Hattum would be filing a response to the summary judgment motion. Nothing further was heard. Hattum was in serious default in connection with the motion for a partial summary judgment. In addition, Hattum did not timely file the "opposing party's required statement of material facts" as contemplated by D.S.D. LR 56.1(C). The parties have stipulated various times to extend the time for discovery and such stipulations have been approved by the Court. The discovery deadline ended on November 15, 1999, but all deadlines previously established by the Court's Scheduling Order and all Amended Scheduling Orders were indefinitely suspended pending a final judicial determination of this motion (Doc. 51). Extending the time for discovery obviously does not extend the time to respond to a motion, especially a motion for a partial summary judgment.

[¶ 3] After the Court brought the defaults to the attention of counsel, Hattum filed a motion to be relieved of default. Such motion was opposed by plaintiffs. The Court relieved Hattum of default and Hattum has filed documents in opposition to the motion for a partial summary judgment (Docs. 52, 53, 54 and 55) and a request for oral argument (Doc. 56). Plaintiffs have filed two documents to reply to the Hattum documents. The Court will decide the motion on the merits rather than as a default matter.

DECISION

I. Standing.

[¶ 4] "Federal courts are not courts of general jurisdiction and have only the power that is authorized by Article III of the Constitution and statutes enacted by Congress pursuant thereto." Marine Equip. Management Co. v. U.S., 4 F.3d 643, 646 (8th Cir.1993), citing Bender v. Williamsport Area School Dist., 475 U.S. 534, 541, 106 S.Ct. 1326, 1331, 89 L.Ed.2d 501, reh'g denied 476 U.S. 1132, 106 S.Ct. 2003, 90 L.Ed.2d 682 (1986), citing in turn Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137, 2 L.Ed. 60 (1803). "The threshold inquiry in every federal case is whether the court has jurisdiction" and the Eighth Circuit has "admonished district judges to be attentive to a satisfaction of jurisdictional requirements in all cases." Rock Island Millwork Co. v. Hedges-Gough Lumber Co., 337 F.2d 24, 26-27 (8th Cir. 1964); Sanders v. Clemco Indus. 823 F.2d 214, 216 (8th Cir.1987).

[¶ 5] Standing under Article III of the United States Constitution "is a threshold issue, and [the plaintiff] must fulfill standing requirements to bring" an action under 25 U.S.C. § 81. Schmit v. Int'l Fin. Management Co., 980 F.2d 498, 498 (8th Cir. 1992). "Title 25 U.S.C. § 81 `was enacted solely for the protection and benefit of Indians'" and plaintiff must allege an interest within the zone of interests protected by § 81. Id. (quoting Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 498-502, 95 S.Ct. 2197, 2204-2207, 45 L.Ed.2d 343 (1975)).

This is a qui tam action, brought in the name of and on behalf of the United States, as is required by 25 U.S.C. § 81 and Fed.R.Civ.P. 17(a) ("... when a statute of the United States provides, an action for the use or benefit of another shall be brought in the name of the United States."). U.S. ex rel. Hall v. Tribal Dev. Corp., 49 F.3d 1208, 1212 (7th Cir.1995).

Qui tam suits by definition involve suits brought by private parties to assist the executive branch in its enforcement of the law, the violation of which affects the interest of the government, not the individual relator, whose only motivation in bringing the suit is to recover a piece of the action given by statute. So when a legislative body enacts provisions enabling qui tam actions, that act carries with it an understanding that in such suits it is the government, and not the individual relator, who has suffered the injury resulting from the violation of the underlying law and is therefore the real plaintiff in the action.

Id. "It is enough, then, that the United States, as the entity on whose behalf and in whose name this suit was brought, has suffered an injury-in-fact under Article III." Id. at 1214. The matter of standing, however, in qui tam suits is not the same in the Eighth Circuit as it is in the Seventh Circuit and other circuits. As we know from Schmit v. Int'l Fin. Management Co., supra, the party plaintiff must show standing, i.e. injury and a party who is "within the zone of interest protected by § 81."

[¶ 7] It is undisputed that the Tribe is an Indian Tribe whose tribal government is operated pursuant to a Constitution approved by the United States Secretary of the Interior and that William Shields, Jr. is an enrolled member of the Tribe. It is clear that the Tribe entered into written custom farming contracts with Hattum and that the Tribe paid Hattum over $1 million under these contracts and apparently under oral understandings allegedly "backed up" by Tribal Council resolutions.

[¶ 8] The qui tam relators are proper parties to represent the United States in this action because one is the actual Tribe owning (directly or by virtue of land held in trust status) the farmland in question and the other is a member of that Tribe. Clearly, they are within the zone of interests protected by § 81. There is also no question that the United States, if 25 U.S.C. § 81 has been violated, has suffered a sufficient injury and therefore has standing to maintain this action through the qui tam relators. Standing is established.

II. Summary Judgment.

[¶ 9] Summary Judgment is proper where there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed. R.Civ.P. 56(c); Donaho v. FMC Corp., 74 F.3d 894, 898 (8th Cir.1996). The United States Supreme Court has held that:

The plain language of Rule 56(c) mandates the entry of summary judgment ... against a party who fails to make a showing sufficient to establish the existence of an element essential to that party's case, and on which that party will bear the burden of proof at trial. In such a situation, there can be "no genuine issue as to any material fact," since a complete failure of proof concerning an essential element of the non-moving party's case necessarily renders all other facts immaterial.

Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322-323, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2552, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). "A material fact dispute is genuine if the evidence is sufficient to allow a reasonable jury to return a verdict for the non-moving party." Landon v. Northwest Airlines, Inc., 72 F.3d 620, 624 (8th Cir. 1995). In considering the motion for partial summary judgment, this Court must view the facts in the light most favorable to Hattum and give Hattum the benefit of all reasonable inferences that can be drawn from the facts. Donaho, 74 F.3d at 897-898.

[¶ 10] Plaintiffs claim that Hattum's counterclaim fails as a matter of law because none of the contracts Hattum claims as the sources of payments owed him were approved by the Secretary of the Interior pursuant to 25 U.S.C. § 81.

[¶ 11] 25 U.S.C. § 81 provides, in...