Klamath & Modoc Tribes v. United States

174 Ct. Cl. 483, 1966 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 162, 1966 WL 8850
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedFebruary 18, 1966
DocketNo. 125-61; No. 87-62
StatusPublished
Cited by46 cases

This text of 174 Ct. Cl. 483 (Klamath & Modoc Tribes v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Klamath & Modoc Tribes v. United States, 174 Ct. Cl. 483, 1966 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 162, 1966 WL 8850 (cc 1966).

Opinion

CoweN, Chief Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

The petition in Docket No. 125-61 was filed to recover additional compensation for property of the Klamath Tribe disposed of or taken by the United States during the termination of Federal supervision over the affairs of the tribe and its members pursuant to the Klamath Termination Act of August 13, 1954, 68 Stat. 718. Thereafter, on March 22, 1962, the petition in Docket No. 87-62 was filed by a number of withdrawing members of the tribe suing in their own behalf for additional compensation for property disposed of or taken by the United States during the Klamath termination. Motions were filed in each case by the United States for the purpose of obtaining a determination by the court whether the claims were owned by the tribe or individual members, and by order of April 24,1964, the court denied both motions and consolidated the actions for all further proceedings.

On June 26,1964, a second amended petition was filed in Docket 125-61 in which a large number of additional individual plaintiffs were added and the claim for additional compensation for property disposed of or taken during the Klamath Termination Program was restated. However, for the first time, the second amended petition asserts in paragraph 21 thereof a claim for a general accounting. It is to this claim that defendant’s motion for judgment on the pleadings is directed.

Defendant’s motion presents a significant question regarding the jurisdiction of this court, for it is defendant’s position [486]*486that the United States has not given its permission for an independent suit against itself for a general accounting. Since the claim asserted in paragraph 21 in the petition is viewed by defendant as being one strictly for such specific relief, the defendant has moved that the petition in Docket No. 125-61 should be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction insofar as it demands a general accounting against the United States.

On the other hand, plaintiffs view the situation in different and alternative lights. First, they assert that under the provisions of Section 24 of the Indian Claims Commission Act, 60 Stat. 1049, 1055, as amended, 68 Stat. 102, 28 U.S.C. § 1505, as explained by the legislative history and read in context of the fiduciary relationship that exists or has existed between the Indians and the United States, the court has jurisdiction to order the Government to render an accounting to its Indian wards. Secondly, plaintiffs advance the theory that the claim is really one where the relief sought is money damages, the accounting being incident to the relief sought. Plaintiffs point to paragraph 21 (f) of the amended petition wherein they allege the defendant breached its statutory duties as a fiduciary and thereby caused loss and damage to plaintiffs.

It is settled beyond peradventure that the United States may not be sued without its consent. Moreover, this court cannot freely entertain suits of diverse and sundry natures simply because the United States is said to be the offending party. Our jurisdiction is limited by the strictures imposed by 28 U.S.C. § 1491, popularly referred to as the “Tucker Act,” and by the provisions of Section 24 of the Indian Claims Commission Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1505,1 which extend to Indian [487]*487tribes, bands, and groups the rights of other Americans to sue their Government under the Tucker Act.

In plaintiffs’ first theory of consent, noted above, they assert that it was the intent of Congress in passing Section 24 of the Indian Claims Commission Act to do something more than extend the jurisdiction of this court under the Tucker Act to claims brought by Indian tribes on causes of action accruing after the enactment of the Indian Claims Commission Act. After examining the legislative history and plaintiffs’ arguments pertinent thereto, we conclude that the “something more” is missing from the legislative record. The court is well aware of the purposes behind the enactment of the Indian Claims Commission Act, see e.g., Creek Nation v. United States, 168 Ct. Cl. 483 (1964). Congress recognized its duty to clean the Augean stables of past generations and correct, in part, wrongs accorded the Indians by giving them a fair day in court to seek redress of their legitimate grievances. In order to do so, it created a commission vested with the authority to hear and decide not only legal claims presented by the Indians but those of an equitable and moral nature as well. Thus, in Section 2 of the Indian Claims Commission Act, 25 U.S.C. 70a, Congress expressly included in the jurisdiction of the Commission (in subparagraphs (1) and (2)) claims “in law or equity” and (in subparagraph (3)) claims “cognizable by a court of equity”. The breadth of this jurisdictional grant is in sharp contrast with the language of 28 U.S.C. § 1505, which merely gives to Indian tribes the same rights to sue in this court as are granted to others under our general jurisdictional statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1491.

It is fundamental that an action for accounting is an equitable claim and that courts of equity have original jurisdiction to compel an accounting, Village of Brookfield v. Pentis, 101 F. 2d 516, 520-521 (7th Cir. 1939); 54 Am. Jur. Trusts §§ 276, 507. Cf. Garrett v. First Nat. Bank & Trust Co., 153 F. 2d 289 (5th Cir. 1946). See also Bogert, Trusts db Trustees, §§963, 989 (1948). Our general jurisdiction under the Tucker Act does not include actions in equity. United States [488]*488v. Jones, 131 U.S. 1 (1889) and Clay v. United States, 210 F. 2d 686 (D.C. Cir. 1958), cert. denied, 347 U.S. 927 (1954). In Glidden Co. v. Zdanok, 370 U.S. 530, 557 (1962), the Supreme Court stated:

From the beginning it [the Court of Claims] has been given jurisdiction only to award damages, not specific relief.

Although we may exercise equitable powers in some instances as an incident of our general jurisdiction,2 we do not have jurisdiction to entertain an action brought solely to obtain specific equitable relief. In reaching this conclusion, we deem it to be a factor of controlling importance that when Congress by special jurisdictional acts authorized suits by Indian tribes in this court for a general accounting, Congress took the pains to make specific provision for such extra-legal relief. See e.g., The Uintah and White River Bands of Ute Indians v. United States, No. 47574, and The Confederated Bands of Ute Indians v. United States, Ct. Cl. No. 47567, both brought under the Jurisdictional Act of June 28, 1938, 52 Stat. 1209

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Bluebook (online)
174 Ct. Cl. 483, 1966 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 162, 1966 WL 8850, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/klamath-modoc-tribes-v-united-states-cc-1966.