Klamath Tribe Claims Committee v. United States

106 Fed. Cl. 87, 2012 U.S. Claims LEXIS 822, 2012 WL 2878551
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedJuly 16, 2012
DocketNo. 09-75L
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 106 Fed. Cl. 87 (Klamath Tribe Claims Committee 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
Klamath Tribe Claims Committee v. United States, 106 Fed. Cl. 87, 2012 U.S. Claims LEXIS 822, 2012 WL 2878551 (uscfc 2012).

Opinion

OPINION

ALLEGRA, Judge:

The Klamath Tribe Claims Committee (Klamath Claims Committee or plaintiff) seeks damages for alleged takings and breaches of fiduciary duty committed by the Department of the Interior (Interior). It asserts that Interior has failed to disburse funds owed to tribal members and to safeguard treaty-based water rights associated with a dam. On February 11,2011, the court granted, in part, a motion filed by defendant, and dismissed two of plaintiffs counts for lack of jurisdiction. As to the remaining counts, this court concluded, under RCFC 19, that a necessary party, the Klamath Tribes (the Tribes)1 must be joined. Subsequently, the Tribes declined to participate in this lawsuit. Accordingly, the court must now determine whether the Tribes is an indispensable party under RCFC 19(b). For the reasons that follow, the court concludes that the Tribes, indeed, is an indispensable party and that the inability to join it in this lawsuit requires that the complaint be dismissed.

I. BACKGROUND

A brief recitation of the facts provides necessary context.

The United States and the Tribes entered into a Treaty in 1864. See Treaty between the United States and the Klamath and Moa-doc Tribes and Yahooskin Band of Snake Indians, October 14, 1864, 16 Stat. 707 (the Treaty). Under this Treaty, the Tribes ceded their interest in approximately twelve million acres of land, reserving unto themselves approximately 800,000 acres, along with “the exclusive right of taking fish in the streams and lakes, included in said reservation, and of gathering edible roots, seeds, and berries [89]*89within its limits.” Id. In exchange, the federal government gave the Tribes cash and goods worth approximately $300,000. It also committed to provide various services to the Tribes and to hold tribal assets in trust for the benefit of the Tribes and its members. Id. From 1890 to 1920, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) surveyed the reservation for its irrigation potential and constructed irrigation facilities. One such facility was a diversion dam, the Chiloquin Dam (the Dam), that diverted portions of the Sprague River into canals which served lands on the Williamson River and Upper Klamath Lake.

In 1954, Congress passed the Klamath Termination Act (the 1954 Act), Pub. L. No. 83-587, 68 Stat. 718 (codified, as amended, at 25 U.S.C. §§ 564-564x), which ended federal supervision over the Tribes’ trust assets and tribal properties, and terminated the federal services furnished to the Tribes. As described by the Court of Claims in an earlier ease—

[t]he basic scheme of that statute ... was to give each adult member whose name appeared on the final tribal roll an election between withdrawing from the tribe and having his interest in tribal property commuted to money to be paid to him, and, on the other hand, remaining in the tribe and participating in a nongovernmental tribal management plan.

Klamath & Modoc Tribes v. United States, 436 F.2d 1008, 1010-11 (Ct.Cl.1971).2 Section 10 of the 1954 Act authorized the government to dispose of federally-owned property acquired for administration of the Tribes or to transfer this property to qualifying entities. 1954 Act § 10 (codified at 25 U.S.C. § 564i). Other provisions in this statute dealt with the federally-owned and operated irrigation facilities on the Klamath Reservation, including the Dam. For example, section 13(a) of the 1954 Act authorized the Secretary to transfer the “care, operation and maintenance” of irrigation works to water users associations or irrigation districts. 1954 Act § 13(a) (codified at 25 U.S.C. § 564i(a)).

Section 13(e) of the 1954 Act “authorized to be appropriated” $89,212 for “payment to the Klamath Tribe[s]” at four percent interest “per annum,” calculated from the date of disbursement. 1954 Act § 13(e) (codified at 25 U.S.C. § 564i(c)). The 1954 Act stated that these funds were “reimbursement for tribal funds used for irrigation, construction, operation and maintenance benefitting non-tribal lands on the Klamath Reservation.” Id. It further directed the Secretary to transfer all personal property or funds that the United States held in trust, free of encumbrance, to tribal members within four years. 1954 Act § 8 (codified at 25 U.S.C. § 564g). The Secretary was directed to arrange for the disposition of the Tribes’ property at the earliest practicable time, but not later than August 13,1958. 1954 Act § 6(b) (codified at 25 U.S.C. § 564e(b)); see also Klamath & Modoc Tribes, 436 F.2d at 1011. Once the restrictions on the Tribes’ property were removed, the Secretary was to publish a proclamation in the Federal Register that the trust relationship between the Tribes and the United States was terminated. 1954 Act § 18 (codified at 25 U.S.C. § 564q). Finally, the 1954 Act expressly preserved the Tribes’ water and fishing rights as granted under the 1864 Treaty. 1954 Act § 14 (codified at 25 U.S.C. § 564m).

Following the passage of this legislation, approximately seventy-eight percent of the Tribes’ members (1,660 of 2,133) chose to withdraw, and defendant used its authority under Section 10 of the Act to sell off much of the Tribes’ property to pay these withdrawing members. See Klamath & Modoc Tribes, 436 F.2d at 1011. The Secretary transferred the remaining tribal property to a private trustee to be maintained for those members who chose to remain with the Tribes. In 1955, about a year after the [90]*90passage of the 1954 Act, Congress appropriated funds to reimburse the Tribes for money expended to construct, operate and maintain irrigation facilities benefiting non-tribal lands. See Dept, of Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 1956, Pub. L. No. 84-78, ch. 147, 69 Stat. 141, 143 (June 16, 1955). In 1961, the Secretary published a notice in the Federal Registrar stating that the federal government’s relationship with the Tribe was officially terminated. 26 Fed. Reg. 7,362 (Aug. 12,1961).

On August 21, 1961, the Tribes’ governing body passed a resolution giving the Klamath Claims Committee authority to pursue certain claims against the United States. See Joint Resolution of Tribal Councils, March 2008 (describing the earlier resolution). The Klamath Claims Committee represents all 2,133 individuals who appeared on the rolls of the Tribes as of the date of their termination under the 1954 Act. In 1961, the Tribes and sevei’al individuals (both withdrawing and remaining members for themselves and as representatives for similarly-situated individuals) filed suit against the United States in the U.S.

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Bluebook (online)
106 Fed. Cl. 87, 2012 U.S. Claims LEXIS 822, 2012 WL 2878551, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/klamath-tribe-claims-committee-v-united-states-uscfc-2012.