Fort Defiance Housing Corp. v. Lowe

8 Navajo Rptr. 463, 5 Am. Tribal Law 394
CourtNavajo Nation Supreme Court
DecidedApril 12, 2004
DocketNo. SC-CV-32-03
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 8 Navajo Rptr. 463 (Fort Defiance Housing Corp. v. Lowe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Navajo Nation Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fort Defiance Housing Corp. v. Lowe, 8 Navajo Rptr. 463, 5 Am. Tribal Law 394 (navajo 2004).

Opinion

Opinion delivered by

BATES ARTHUR, Chief Justice.

This matter comes before the Court on its own motion. We remand the case for proceedings consistent with this opinion.

[472]*472I

The facts and procedural history are taken from the Shiprock District Court’s Order for Forcible Entry & Detainer & Money Due (Order). Michael and Erin Lowe (Appellants) live in the Shiprock Northwest Subdivision managed by Appellee Fort Defiance Housing Corporation (Appellee). The Order does not indicate whether the residence is a rental unit or a mutual help home.1 Appellants failed to make payments to Appellee. Appellee filed a complaint for forcible entry and detainer to evict Appellants from their residence. Appellants did not respond to the complaint, and the Shiprock District Court issued its Order after an entry of default. The Order required Appellants to vacate the residence, to remove all their property, and to make $5,329 in past due payments. Appellants appealed the Order. There is nothing in the record before us that shows that Appellants submitted an appeal bond or that the Shiprock District Court waived the bond.2

II

Based on the lack of an appeal bond or alternatively, a waiver, we take judicial notice of a potential jurisdictional defect. See Dale Nicholson Trust v. Chavez, 8 Nav. R. 417, 426 5 (Nav. Sup. Ct. 2004) (a court may question its own jurisdiction). Evictions on the Navajo Nation are governed by the forcible entry and detainer statute, 16 N.N.C. §§ i8or etseq. Upon appeal, the statute requires an appellant to give notice to the appellee as in other appeals, but also to fil[e] with the [trial] court within five days after rendition of the judgment a bond... with sureties to be approved by the Navajo Nation Court Judge, payable to the adverse party and conditioned that he or she will prosecute the appeal to effect and pay all [473]*473costs and damages which may be adjudged against him or her.3 16 N.N.C. § 1807. Importantly, the filing of an appeal bond stays the lower court’s eviction order. 16 N.N.C. § 1808. Section 1807 is jurisdictional, and failure to comply with its conditions requires that this Court dismiss the appeal. Navajo Townsite Community Development Corp. v. Sorrell, 8 Nav. R. 214, 219 (Nav. Sup. Ct. 2002); Hood v. Bordy, 6 Nav. R. 349, 351 (Nav. Sup. Ct. 1991); Yazzie v. Navajo Housing Authority, 3 Nav. 117, 117 (Nav. Ct. App. 1982); Benally v. Navajo Housing Authority, 3 Nav. R. 55, 56 (Nav. Ct. App. 1981). An appellant complies with Section 1807 when he or she submits a bond within five days of the district court’s order, or when the district court waives the bond on request. Sorrell, 8 Nav. Sup. Ct. 219-20. The district court may, in its discretion, waive the bond if the appellant shows “an earnest attempt to comply with the statute by providing documents showing such attempts.” Id. at 220. Here there is no indication that appellant filed an appeal bond with the court or sought and was granted a waiver.

While under a strict interpretation of the statute we must dismiss this appeal, we are compelled to inquire whether or not a dismissal would violate a fundamental right of Appellants under Navajo law. We will interpret Section r 807 in light of the Navajo Bill of Rights, as informed by Dipin Nohookáá’ Dine’éBi Beehaz’danii (Navajo Common Law), to decide whether we must dismiss this case.

Ill

A

In the context of a residential tenant, the forcible entry and detainer statute provides a landlord with a procedure by which a Navajo person or family can be involuntarily separated from their home. The Court will take judicial notice that a home, hooghan, in the context of Navajo custom and tradition is more than just a dwelling place. Judicial notice is appropriate in matters of custom and tradition, Apache v. Republic Nat’l Life Insurance Co., 3 Nav. R. 250, 252 (W.R. Dist. Ct. 1982), and may be taken of facts “every damn fool knows.” Dawes v. Yazzie, 5 Nav. R. 161, 165 (Nav. Sup. Ct. 1987). Here, the central place a home has for a Navajo family is unquestionably a concept everyone knows.

The Navajo home is not only a roof over one’s head, but the place where families are established and children grow and learn; it is the center of all Navajo relationships. Children are conceived in the home. Certainly in the recent past children were born at home and some may still be, even in this modern era of hospitals. In the home children are given their education and knowledge of who they are and their place in the world. In the home children learn their responsibilities to themselves and to their family members, and where children learn the concept of k’éthat will guide their relationships throughout their life.

[474]*474The home in Navajo thinking is not a mere piece of property in which one holds an equity interest, but hooghan rises to a level of spiritual centrality. Navajo families perform sacred ceremonies and say prayers in the home. After successive prayers and ceremonies by the introduction and reintroduction of corn pollen on the retaining beams, the sprinkling of white and yellow corn and the spreading out of soil to the west, the blessedness of the home is compounded, building in power and spirituality. This concept of home is not a mere concept of property ownership. It is much more.

Given the importance of a home to Navajos, a tenant has an absolute right to due process in eviction proceedings. Though we have previously recognized a protected interest under due process only for mutual help homes, Navajo Housing Authority v. Betsoi, 5 Nav. R. 55, 57 (Nav. Sup Ct. 1985), we have also held that Navajo due process encompasses a wider range of interests than due process under the United States Constitution. Atcitty v. District Court for the Judicial District of Window Rock, 7 Nav. R. 227, 231 (Nav. Sup Ct. 1996). The centrality of a home to Navajo life means that a tenant’s interest in a home, whether a rental unit or not, cannot be taken away without due process. Also, independent of this interest, we have recognized a due process right of access to the courts, including appeals. Sorrell, 8 Nav. R. 214. That right requires that our Court give appellants meaningful notice and an opportunity to be heard. In re Certifed Question II, 6 Nav. R. ro2, rr8 (Nav. R. 214). It also means that the right of access to the courts should not be denied on technical grounds. Sorrell, 8 Nav. R. at 221.

Under these principles, Navajo courts must assure that tenants are provided due process before a tenant can be evicted from his or her home under the forcible entry and detainer statute. We therefore turn to the appellate requirements in the forcible entry and detainer statute to decide whether the procedures provide due process.

B

The forcible entry and detainer statute sets out a very short time to comply with the bond requirement, and provides no guidance on the actual procedure for the district court to follow to set bond conditions. Section T807 allows only five days for an appellant to submit a bond or to file a waiver. The statute does not provide any guidelines on how the trial judge sets the bond.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
8 Navajo Rptr. 463, 5 Am. Tribal Law 394, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fort-defiance-housing-corp-v-lowe-navajo-2004.