U.S. v. Thompson

• Decision Date: 12 August 1991
• Docket Number: 89-2091 and 89-2142,Nos. 89-2077,s. 89-2077
• Citation: 941 F.2d 1074
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, on its own Behalf and on Behalf of The Pueblo of Santo Domingo, Plaintiff-counter-defendant/Appellant, and The Pueblo of Santo Domingo, Plaintiff-intervenor, v. Leland THOMPSON, Jr., et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

Page 1074

941 F.2d 1074

UNITED STATES of America, on its own Behalf and on Behalf of

The Pueblo of Santo Domingo, Plaintiff-counter-defendant/Appellant, and The Pueblo of Santo Domingo, Plaintiff-intervenor, v. Leland THOMPSON, Jr., et al., Defendants-Appellees.

Nos. 89-2077, 89-2091 and 89-2142.

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

Aug. 12, 1991.

Edward J. Shawaker, Atty. Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C. (Donald A. Carr, Acting Asst. Atty. Gen., and Myles E. Flint, Deputy Asst. Atty. Gen., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., William L. Lutz, U.S. Atty., and Herbert A. Becker, Asst U.S. Atty., Albuquerque, N.M.; Robert L. Klarquist, Atty., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., with him, on the briefs) for plaintiff-counter-defendant/appellant U.S.

Scott E. Borg (Sarah W. Barlow with him, on the briefs), Rosenfelt, Barlow & Borg, Albuquerque, N.M., for plaintiff-counter-defendant/appellant The Pueblo of Santo Domingo.

David F.B. Smith (William T. Finley, Jr., and Kevin W. McLean with him, on the brief), Pierson Semmes and Finley, Washington, D.C., for defendants-appellees.

Before LOGAN, ANDERSON and EBEL, Circuit Judges.

LOGAN, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiffs, the Pueblo of Santo Domingo and the United States, as trustee for the Pueblo, brought this suit to quiet title to approximately 24,000 acres of land in New Mexico that were part of a seventeenth century Spanish land grant to the Pueblo. Defendants are non-Indian claimants to the land under a subsequent Spanish grant. The district court entered summary judgment for defendants, finding that the Pueblo Lands Act of June 7, 1924, ch. 331, 43 Stat. 636, as amended by Act of May 31, 1933, ch. 45, 48 Stat. 108, created a statute of limitations that now bars this action. United States v. Thompson, 708 F.Supp. 1206 (D.N.M.1989). Plaintiffs appeal.

I

The Pueblo trace their title to the land from a 1689 grant by Spain, which was confirmed by Congress in 1858 and patented in 1864. Defendants trace their title from a 1782 grant known as the Mesita de Juana Lopez Grant, which Congress confirmed in 1879. Approximately 24,000 acres are overlapped by both grants and are referred to as "the overlap land."

In response to uncertainty over the titles to Pueblo land, ¹ Congress passed the Pueblo Lands Act of June 7, 1924 (PLA), ch. 331, 43 Stat. 636. The PLA established the Pueblo Lands Board (Board) to examine and resolve non-Indian claims to Pueblo lands. Section 2 directed the Board to issue a report describing "any land granted or confirmed to the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico by any authority of the United States of America, or any prior sovereignty, or acquired by said Indians as a community by purchase or otherwise, title to which the said board shall find not to have been extinguished in accordance with the provisions of this Act...." Id. § 2, 43 Stat. at 636. The Board was to examine the claims of non-Indians and extinguish Pueblo title only when it determined that the non-Indians had met certain adverse possession and tax payment requirements of § 4. Id. §§ 2 & 4, 43 Stat. at 636-37.

Once the § 2 report was issued, the Attorney General was to bring a quiet title action in United States district court for all lands described in the report for which the Board had determined Pueblo title was not extinguished. Id. §§ 1 & 3, 43 Stat. at 636-37. Any non-Indian whose claims the Board had not accepted could raise an adverse possession defense before the district court, and the court could extinguish Pueblo title if it found that the claimant had met the § 4 adverse possession criteria. In addition, the Pueblo could sue to assert their property rights under an independent suit provision of § 4. Id. § 4, 43 Stat. at 637.

Section 13 required the Secretary of Interior (Secretary) to file plats and field notes for the lands to which Pueblo title had been extinguished, thereby vesting title in the non-Indian claimants. Id. § 13, 43 Stat. at 640. The Secretary could not file the plats and field notes until at least two years had passed from the filing of the Board's § 2 report. Id.

In § 14, Congress attempted to settle title to lands with overlapping Spanish grants. Section 14 contemplated that the Pueblo would retain title to and possession of all overlap land, even if a non-Indian claimant had superior title. See id. § 14, 43 Stat. at 641. Congress then would consider compensating the non-Indian claimant. See id.

As the district court stated, "[a]t issue in this case is the Board's § 2 report on the Pueblo of Santo Domingo." Thompson, 708 F.Supp. at 1210. The report stated that

"having investigated the lands within the exterior boundaries of the land ... confirmed to the Pueblo of Santo Domingo as shown on blue print map hereto attached and marked 'Exhibit A', being a Spanish Grant ..., [the Board] has determined, and hereby determines, that title thereto in said Pueblo has not been extinguished in accordance with the provisions of said Act of June 7, 1924, as to the lands described and set forth by metes and bounds as follows, except certain tracts marked 'Exceptions 1 to 36', inclusive, and indicated on blue print map hereto attached and marked 'Exhibit B', and except the lands over-lapped by the La Majada, Sitio de Juana Lopez and Mesita de Juana Lopez grants shown on blue print map hereto attached and marked 'Exhibit A',...."

Pueblo Lands Board, Santo Domingo Pueblo, Report on Title to Lands Granted or Confirmed to Pueblo Indians Not Extinguished 1-2 (Dec. 29, 1927), IV Addendum of Exhibits, Ex. E-1 (emphasis added). No claims by non-Indians were presented to the Board for the overlap land, although it appears that Exceptions 1 to 36 were based on non-Indian claims.

The United States, pursuant to § 3 of the PLA, filed a quiet title action on behalf of the Pueblo but expressly excluded the overlap land. The quiet title complaint asserted that the Board had "determined that the Indian title to certain portions [including the overlap land] of the patented land hereinabove described has been extinguished, and that title to said portions now vests in various owners other than said Pueblo and said Indians ... and no relief is here asked as to the land included therein." Government's Bill of Complaint in United States v. Montoya, No. 1830 Equity (D.N.M.1929), IV Addendum of Exhibits, Ex. E-6 at 5; see also Stipulation of the Parties, R. tab 766 at 6, p 9. Plats and field notes were filed for the specific parcels for which non-Indians had presented claims (i.e., Exceptions 1 to 36), but there is no evidence that plats and field notes were ever filed for the overlap land. ² The instant action was not filed until March 9, 1984.

On appeal, plaintiffs' contentions can be grouped into four general alternative arguments, as follows: (1) the § 4 independent suit provision does not contain a statute of limitations; (2) even if § 4 does include a statute of limitations, Congress did not intend it to apply to the overlap land; (3) no statute of limitations can operate against the federal government without its express consent and, therefore, the government may maintain this action even if the Pueblo cannot; and (4) the statute of limitations does not run until the plats and field notes are filed, a condition that has not been satisfied with respect to the overlap land.

There are no disputed material facts. We review the district court's application of law de novo. See Osgood v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 848 F.2d 141, 143 (10th Cir.1988).

II

We first consider whether the PLA § 4 independent suit provision contains a statute of limitations. " 'The starting point in every case involving construction of a statute is the language itself.' " International Bhd. of Teamsters v. Daniels, 439 U.S. 551, 558, 99 S.Ct. 790, 795, 58 L.Ed.2d 808 (1979) (quoting Blue Chip Stamps v. Manor Drug Stores, 421 U.S. 723, 756, 95 S.Ct. 1917, 1935, 44 L.Ed.2d 539 (1975) (Powell, J., concurring)). "When the terms of the statute are clear and unambiguous, that language is controlling absent rare and exceptional circumstances." Wilson v. Stocker, 819 F.2d 943, 948 (10th Cir.1987). The relevant portion of § 4 is its independent suit provision:

"Nothing in this Act contained shall be construed to impair or destroy any existing right of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico to assert and maintain unaffected by the provisions of this Act their title and right to any land by original proceedings, either in law or equity, in any court of competent jurisdiction and any such right may be asserted at any time prior to the filing of the field notes and plats as provided by section 13 hereof,...."

PLA § 4, 43 Stat. at 637.

That section authorized the Pueblo to sue on their own behalf to protect their title. Defendants argue that it also established a time limit after which the Pueblo could no longer challenge the Board's extinguishment of their title. Plaintiffs disagree, contending that the section provided a "grace period" during which the Pueblo could sue as if the PLA had never been enacted and after which the Pueblo could sue at any time but subject to the PLA. The district court found that the meaning of independent suit provision "cannot be determined from the plain language of the statute. Without resort to the legislative history, [it] is susceptible to the meanings ascribed it both by plaintiffs and by defendants." Thompson, 708 F.Supp. at 1212. We agree that the statutory language is ambiguous on its face as applied to the statute of limitations issue before us.

Plaintiffs argue that ambiguous statutory language must be construed in favor of the Indians. The district court, citing Mountain States Tel. & Tel. Co. v. Santa Ana, 472 U.S. 237, 105 S.Ct. 2587, 86 L.Ed.2d 168 (1985), rejected this canon of statutory construction. Thompson, 708 F.Supp. at 1212 n. 7. Instead, the court examined the PLA's legislative history and overall structure, and determined that Congress intended to create ...