Banner v. United States

44 Fed. Cl. 568, 1999 U.S. Claims LEXIS 194, 1999 WL 605631
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedAugust 11, 1999
DocketNo. 96-708L
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 44 Fed. Cl. 568 (Banner v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Federal Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Banner v. United States, 44 Fed. Cl. 568, 1999 U.S. Claims LEXIS 194, 1999 WL 605631 (uscfc 1999).

Opinion

ORDER

TIDWELL, Senior Judge.

A group of individuals and the Salamanca Coalition of United Taxpayers (“SCOUT”), who once leased portions of the Allegany Reservation in upstate New York, bring this Fifth Amendment takings and due process action. Plaintiffs contend that a 1990 congressional statute — the Seneca Nation Land Claims Settlement Act, 25 U.S.C. § 1774 (1994) (hereinafter “Act of 1990”) — extin[570]*570guished plaintiffs’ leasehold renewal rights and unlawfully transferred plaintiffs’ ownership interest in improvements on the land to the Seneca Nation of Indians (“SNI”). Now before this court are defendant’s motion to dismiss or, in the alternative, motion for summary judgment; plaintiffs’ cross-motion for summary judgment and motion to strike the declaration of William A. Morgan; and defendant’s cross-motion to strike, in part, the declaration of Jennifer A. Coleman. For the reasons set forth below, defendant’s motion to dismiss the due process claim is ALLOWED, defendant’s motion for summary judgment on the takings claim is ALLOWED, and plaintiffs’ cross-motion for summary judgment is DENIED. Both plaintiffs’ and defendant’s motions to strike, which this court need not consider, are DENIED.

FACTS

I. Historical Background

In the mid-nineteenth century, SNI granted various settlers leases to occupy portions of the Allegany Reservation in Salamanca, New York. The Supreme Court of New York, however, declared the leases void based upon 25 U.S.C. § 177, which prohibited SNI from leasing tribal lands without congressional authority. Congress remedied the problem by enacting the Act of February 19,1875, ch. 90,18 Stat. 330 (hereinafter “Act of 1875”). The Act of 1875 validated the existing leases and granted SNI the necessary authority to further lease the reservation land.

The Act of 1875 provided lessees -with an option to renew the lease for a period “not exceeding twelve years” at terms and conditions “as may be agreed upon” by the lessees and SNI. In the event that the parties could not agree on the terms, the Act of 1875 required the parties to choose a referee or third person to “fix and determine the terms of said lease” and to render an award which would be “final and binding upon the parties.” The Act of 1875 further provided that “whenever any lease shall expire'after-its renewal as aforesaid, it may, at the option of the lessee ... be renewed in the manner hereinbefore provided.”

Congress later enacted the Act of September 30, 1891, ch. 1132, 26 Stat. 588 (hereinafter “Act of 1890”), which extended the renewal period from twelve years to “a term not exceeding ninety-nine years” and reaffirmed all other provisions of the Act of 1875.

In accordance with the Act of 1875 and Act of 1890, plaintiffs’ predecessors renewed their leases in 1880 (for a period of twelve years) and again in 1892 (for a period of ninety-nine years). These leases were set to expire on February 19,1991.

Under the terms of the leases, resident lessees paid SNI little or no money for the use of the land. SNI, perceiving gross inequity, asserted claims for back rent and threatened litigation against the resident lessees, the City of Salamanca, the State of New York, and the United States. As the February 1991 lease expiration date approached, the parties became concerned that SNI would not renew the leases and that SNI would, indeed, pursue litigation to recover payments for nearly one-hundred years of rental inequity.

To forestall litigation, the City of Salamanca created the Salamanca Indian Lease Authority (“SILA”) to encourage SNI to offer new leases. SILA obtained authorization from plaintiff lessees to negotiate the terms of a new lease. Then, in 1990, SILA entered into an agreement with SNI (“Agreement”). The Agreement provided that the United States and the State of New York would pay a sum of money to SNI to remedy past economic inequities. In return, SNI would offer plaintiffs forty-year leases, renewable for another forty years, at fair market rental value (“40/40 leases”). Since the government’s allocation of funding was a condition precedent to SNI’s obligation to offer new leases, Congress enacted the Act of 1990 which authorized the necessary payment to SNI. After receiving payment, SNI offered plaintiffs new leases as agreed.

Some plaintiffs initially rejected the 4%o leases and withdrew authorization previously granted SILA to negotiate leases on their behalf. SILA responded that it had already exercised its authorization insofar as negotiations had concluded and culminated in the [571]*571Agreement. These plaintiffs then demanded that SNI provide them with new ninety-nine year leases at terms to be negotiated via arbitration. SNI rejected plaintiffs’ demand. When the ninety-nine year leases expired in February 1991, plaintiffs who refused to enter into the new 40/40 leases were ejected from the land via court order.

II. Litigation

A. Phase I: 1st USDC Order, Circuit Decision, and 2nd USDC Order

In 1990, plaintiffs brought a class action suit against SNI and others in the United States District Court for the Western District of New York. Plaintiffs sought to invalidate the Agreement and the Act of 1990 and to compel SNI to renew plaintiffs’ leases at terms other than those offered in the 40/40 leases. As its first cause of action, plaintiffs requested a declaration that they possessed property rights to renew the leases via arbitration and property rights to own the improvements on the land. Plaintiffs argued that such property rights were granted by the Act of 1875, Act of 1890, and prior leases. The court dismissed the first cause of action pursuant to Rule 19 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The court reasoned that SNI was an indispensable party to such a determination of property rights — a fact that plaintiffs conceded at oral argument — but that SNI had to be dismissed from the suit on sovereign immunity grounds. In SNI’s absence, the court held, it could not grant the requested relief. See Fluent v. Salamanca Indian Lease Authority, Civ. 90-1229A (Slip Opinion, Jan. 25, 1991) (hereinafter “1st USDC Order”).

Plaintiffs appealed the 1st USDC Order to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Plaintiffs again argued that they possessed property rights to both renew the leases via arbitration and own the improvements on the land. Plaintiffs argued that SNI’s sovereign immunity was impliedly waived by the prior leases and the Acts of 1875 and 1890; therefore, the lower court erred in dismissing the first cause of action. The Second Circuit disagreed and affirmed the lower court’s order on two grounds: (1) SNI did not waive its sovereign immunity and, therefore, Rule 19 barred relief; and (2) even if Rule 19 did not bar relief, neither the prior Acts nor the prior leases gave plaintiffs continued or perpetual property rights. The requirements of the Act of 1875, Act of 1890, and leases had been fully satisfied by past leasehold renewals or by the 40/40 leases; plaintiffs were entitled to nothing more. See Fluent v. Salamanca Indian Lease Authority,

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44 Fed. Cl. 568, 1999 U.S. Claims LEXIS 194, 1999 WL 605631, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/banner-v-united-states-uscfc-1999.