Navajo Tribe v. United States

586 F.2d 192, 218 Ct. Cl. 11, 1978 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 295
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedOctober 18, 1978
DocketNos. 69, 299, 353; Ind. Cl. Comm. Docket Nos. 69, 299, 353 (Accounting Claims); No. 179-A; Ind. Cl. Comm. Docket No. 179-A
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 586 F.2d 192 (Navajo Tribe 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
Navajo Tribe v. United States, 586 F.2d 192, 218 Ct. Cl. 11, 1978 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 295 (cc 1978).

Opinions

DAVIS, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

These cases, transferred here from the Indian Claims Commission prior to its termination,1 confront the court with the troublesome but important issue of the extent to which the Commission (and this court, on transfer) can consider injuries done to Indian entities after August 13, [15]*151946 (the date of enactment of the Indian Claims Commission Act of 1946, 25 U.S.C. §§ 70a-70w (1976)) or having their actual impact after that day.2 Both cases are practically the same for present purposes and may be considered together in one opinion.3

I.

A. The Navajo Tribe: The Tribe timely filed with the Commission in 1950 a petition containing a claim for a complete accounting by the Government for all income and receipts from tribal property held in trust by the Government, and of all expenditures by the Government from tribal funds.4 Accountings were supplied by the United States (beginning in 1961) and the Indians excepted to portions. The complex details and procedural history need not be set forth because the principal issue we consider at this time is a general jurisdictional one arising in this instance from the following set of particular facts: First, the Tribe claimed that from time to time, both before and after August 13, 1946, the defendant wrongfully used various tribal funds to pay for expenses for the maintenance, administration and upkeep of federal Indian agencies which should not have been charged to the Indians (these are referred to in the record and arguments by the shorthand expression of "miscellaneous agency expenses”). The Commission held, first, that with respect to the period prior and up to August 13, 1946, the challenged disbursements were improper (and redress was within the Commission’s jurisdiction), 31 Ind. Cl. Comm. 40 (1973); 34 Ind. Cl. Comm. 432 (1974);5 second, that the Commission had [16]*16authority to consider similar disbursements after August 13, 1946 if they were part of a continuing wrong which began before August 13, 1946 and continued thereafter, 36 Ind. Cl. Comm. 433, 434-35 (1975); 34 Ind. Cl. Comm. 432, 434-35 (1974); 31 Ind. Cl. Comm. 40, 53 (1973); and, third, that the plaintiff had shown that payments of agency expenses from Indian funds constituted a continuing wrong initiated before August 13, 1946 and therefore that the Tribe was entitled to an up-to-date accounting of these miscellaneous agency expenses. 39 Ind. Cl. Comm. 252 (1976).

A second, parallel, dispute over accounting claims, said to begin before August 13, 1946 and continue thereafter, concerned several "Individual Indian Money” (IIM) accounts in the Treasury. The Government resisted having to account for 35 of these accounts because those particular accounts did not exist, or have any activity, prior to August 14, 1946. The Commission denied, without prejudice, requests by defendant to exclude the 35 accounts from the accounting. 36 Ind. Cl. Comm. 181 (1975); 39 Ind. Cl. Comm. 10, 32 (1976). Thus, the Commission never finally decided this question of the 35 IIM accounts.

Thereafter, by order of December 27, 1976, the consolidated accounting claims (Nos. 69, 299, and 353) were transferred to this court. 39 Ind. Cl. Comm. 261 (1976). The trial judge to whom the case was assigned then gave the Government permission to file this motion for partial summary judgment on the issue of accounting to date (rather than merely to August 13, 1946).6

B. The Nez Perce Tribe of Idaho: The Nez Perce Tribe, through the Chief Joseph Band in the State of Washington, duly filed with the Commission a general accounting claim, Nez Perce Tribe v. United States, No. 179 (Ind. Cl. Comm., filed July 16, 1951). The Nez Perce Tribe of Idaho intervened. Docket No. 179 was settled as to all claims or demands up through June 30, 1951. See 23 Ind. Cl. Comm. 39 (1970). Excepted from this settlement and severed into Docket No. 179-A were all claims for the period after June 30, 1951.7 In Docket No. 179-A little was done before the [17]*17Commission. Defendant moved to dismiss that docket for lack of jurisdiction but this was denied. 39 Ind. Cl. Comm. 127 (1976). The Tribe then moved for partial summary judgment and supplemental accounting, asking that it be given an accounting of various funds and properties for the period after June 30, 1951.8

Defendant requested the Commission to transfer the case to this court without calling for a reply to the Tribe’s motion. This was done on December 15, 1976, and the case has been here since that time. 39 Ind. Cl. Comm. 239, 240 (1976).

Before us now is the Tribe’s motion (initially made to the Commission) for partial summary judgment and supplemental accounting, as well as defendant’s cross-motion for summary judgment and dismissal on the ground that this court (on transfer from the' Commission) has no jurisdiction over the claims because they are said to have arisen after August 13, 1946.

II.

The statutory scaffold for this controversy over Commission jurisdiction with respect to post-August 1946 transactions or omissions is composed of three planks: (1) section 2 of the Indian Claims Commission Act of 1946, ch. 959, 60 Stat. 1050 (codified at 25 U.S.C. § 70a (1976)) states that "No claim accruing after the date of the approval of this Act [August 13, 1946] shall be considered by the Commission”; (2) section 12 of the Act, ch. 959, 60 Stat. 1052 (codified at 25 U.S.C. § 70k (1976)), declares that "The Commission shall receive claims for a period of five years after the date of the approval of this Act [August 13, 1946] and no claim existing before such date but not presented within such period may thereafter be submitted to any [18]*18court or administrative agency for consideration, nor will such claim thereafter be entertained by the Congress”; and (3) section 24 of the Act, 60 Stat. 1055 (later codified in 28 U.S.C. § 1505 (1970)), which provided in relevant part that "The jurisdiction of the Court of Claims is hereby extended to any claim against the United States accruing after the date of the approval of this Act [August 13, 1946] in favor of any Indian tribe, band, or other identifiable group of American Indians * * * arising under the Constitution, laws, treaties of the United States, or Executive orders of the President, or is one which otherwise would be cognizable in the Court of Claims if the claimant were not an Indian tribe, band, or group.”9

It is now more than 22 years since the first interface, in this court, between these statutory provisions and the problem of Indian wrongs said to occur after August 13, 1946 but which had their roots in the earlier period. Gila River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community v. United States, 135 Ct. Cl. 180, 140 F. Supp. 776 (1956).

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Bluebook (online)
586 F.2d 192, 218 Ct. Cl. 11, 1978 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 295, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/navajo-tribe-v-united-states-cc-1978.