Navajo Nation Oil & Gas Co. v. Window Rock District Court

12 Am. Tribal Law 22
CourtNavajo Nation Supreme Court
DecidedJune 20, 2014
DocketNo. SC-CV-25-14
StatusPublished

This text of 12 Am. Tribal Law 22 (Navajo Nation Oil & Gas Co. v. Window Rock District Court) 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
Navajo Nation Oil & Gas Co. v. Window Rock District Court, 12 Am. Tribal Law 22 (navajo 2014).

Opinion

OPINION

This matter comes before the Court on Motion for Additional Clarifying Opinion filed on May 9,2014 in an action for writ of prohibition involving an internal conflict in the Navajo Nation Oil and Gas Company (NNOGC) between two parties both filing through different law firms under the corporate name. This Court issued a Perma[24]*24nent Writ of Prohibition to the Window Rock District Court on May 1, 2014, Petitioner now seeks a supplemental decision to clarify the basis for our Writ and to provide finality to the internal issues in the NNOGC.

In the writ action, petitioner is represented by the Frye Law Firm (Frye) and is captioned “NNOGC” while the real party in interest (RPI) is represented by the law firm of Johnson Bamhouse & Keegan LLP (Bamhouse) and captioned “Robert Joe,” however, In all his responses, Robert Joe refers to himself as “NNOGC.” Both sides in a court action cannot be the same entity. The writ is directed to the respondent Window Rock District Court. Four out of five shareholder representatives of NNOGC intervened in support of Robert Joe. Five members of the Board of Directors (directors) intervened in support of the petitioner. Amicus Louis Denetsosie, former NNOCG CEO and Attorney General of the Navajo Nation, was granted leave to file a brief. The Navajo Nation, through the Department of Justice, also intervened.

BACKGROUND

The internal conflict concerns the right of certain individuals in positions of authority within NNOGC to continue making decisions in those positions. Both sides claim that the other side lacks authority to pursue litigation in the corporate name due to suspension, firing or removal. The undisputed facts show that there was a meeting of shareholder representatives on December 21, 2013. After this meeting, Bamhouse informed the five directors that two had been removed and three suspended by vote of majority shareholder representatives. Specifically, four out of five shareholder representatives voted to suspend or remove, with Leonard Tsosie objecting.1 On January 16, 2014, the Navajo Nation Department of Justice (NNDOJ), providing a legal memorandum on the suspensions and removals, raising concerns with the validity of the shareholder representatives’ action due to noncompliance with procedural requirements required to ensure due process and strongly encouraged that the shareholder representatives rescind their action and follow the steps set in the Bylaws of the Corporation.2 On January 17, 2014, Robert Joe filed in the corporate name for an injunction in the Window Rock District Court, seeking to prevent the five directors from holding a scheduled January 21, 2014 Board meeting at which the removal of Robert Joe as CEO was on ■ the agenda, Robert Joe’s complaint stated that the five directors lacked authority to hold the meeting due to their suspension or removal, and that unless the meeting was prevented, further harm would result to NNOGC, at which the district court immediately issued an ex parte temporary injunction against the five directors. Robert Joe did not refer to the NNDOJ’s legal memorandum and did not set forth sovereign immunity as a jurisdictional basis in its statement of jurisdiction.

Petitioner, also filing in the corporate name, moved to dismiss the complaint on the basis that Barnhouse lacked due authority to file in the corporate name. The five directors filed third-party counterclaims against Robert Joe seeking declaratory and injunctive relief and damages. Subsequently, the NNDOJ brokered a [25]*25stipulation that was signed by all and entered by the court as a stipulated order. Various motions, including a dismissal motion by the directors and motion to intervene by the shareholder representatives, were then submitted, whereupon petitioner applied to this Court for a writ of prohibition claiming lack of subject matter jurisdiction under the Navajo Sovereign Immunity Act (NSIA). The shareholder representatives, the five directors, and the Navajo Nation through the NNDOJ filed responses to the petition. While the ex parte injunction was being challenged, the Board Meeting scheduled for January 21, 2014 proceeded, resulting in a Board resolution to remove Robert Joe as CEO.

Immediately following oral argument on May 1, 2014, this Court issued a succinct three-page Permanent Writ of Prohibition pursuant to our 7 N.N.C. § 303 authority to issue necessary and proper writs, invalidating all orders issuing from the district court on the basis of noncompliance with jurisdictional condition precedents required for immunities arising under the NSIA and further ordering dismissal of the underlying complaint filed by Robert Joe in the district court. In the Court’s decision, the parties were “encouraged to engage in further discussion to reach a resolution that preserves the public trust.” Permanent Writ of Prohibition, at 3 (Nav. Sup.Ct. May 1, 2014). Having found that the trial court lacked jurisdiction, we remained cognizant that there was a desperate need for a remedy, and that it be provided quickly. In our view, the individuals who make up the various corporate organs in this case are in positions of a naat’áanii as caretakers of assets of immense value to the Navajo People and, therefore, understand their duty of trust and responsibility to engage in reasonable collaborative settlement in the best interest of the corporation. This responsibility is not fully performed if the naat’áanii immediately resort to lawyers, who due simply to the nature of that adversarial profession, frequently find barriers to resolutions that require compromise.

On May 9, 2014, petitioner filed a motion for additional clarification, informing this Court that efforts of the five directors to convene meetings in their official capacity have been thwarted and they have not been allowed to function as directors pending a compromise. Petitioner asserts that the parties are confused as to their status in NNOGC due to unclear language in the writ, and additionally, that nothing is being done on the counterclaims. The parties are also confused on basic questions such as the effect of the writ of prohibition on the validity of the December 21, 2013 shareholder representatives’ vote to remove or suspend the five directors; who is NNOGC’s counsel; and whether Robert Joe is CEO following the Board’s January 21, 2014 meeting. Parties, intervenors, and amicus submitted responses that confirm the total breakdown in internal corporate communications. Untimely responses by parties were not accepted. A variety of other pleadings were also submitted seeking to strike pleadings of other parties, asking for reconsideration of untimely pleadings, or otherwise requesting relief beyond clarification of the jurisdictional issue. These are summarily denied.

This case is one more example the Court has seen of individuals in official positions enmeshed in conflict over authority and position rather than acknowledge that public officials are all trustees. The authority exercised in a public trust is not the right of any individual in an office of authority, but the right of the people. The parties presented multiple issues to this Court rather than deal with each other naat’ánii to nmi’ámi as we instructed in our permanent writ. This Court will re-frame the issues presented by the motion and re[26]*26sponses inasmuch as we are able to resolve them under our authority over original writ actions, and according to our duty to protect a valuable public asset.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
12 Am. Tribal Law 22, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/navajo-nation-oil-gas-co-v-window-rock-district-court-navajo-2014.