Northern Indian Housing & Development Council v. United States

12 Cl. Ct. 417, 1987 U.S. Claims LEXIS 242
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedMay 28, 1987
DocketNo. 203-84C
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 12 Cl. Ct. 417 (Northern Indian Housing & Development Council 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
Northern Indian Housing & Development Council v. United States, 12 Cl. Ct. 417, 1987 U.S. Claims LEXIS 242 (cc 1987).

Opinion

OPINION

MOODY R. TIDWELL, III, Judge:

This contract case is before the court on cross-motions for summary judgment. Plaintiffs are the Northern Indian Housing and Development Council and 13 Indian Housing Authorities who allege that the government wrongfully offset insurance premium payments that were advanced to them. Defendant argues that plaintiffs’ Complaint should be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction because the Department of Housing and Urban Development did not violate any constitutional, statutory, or regulatory provisions in offsetting the advanced insurance premiums. In addition, defendant argues that the doctrine of es-toppel and waiver do not preclude the government from recovering the advanced premiums.

FACTS

The Indian Housing Authorities (IHAs) are part of local tribal governments that were created under the auspices of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to administer low-income housing programs for members of their respective tribes on reservations. HUD subsidizes the IHAs pursuant to the Housing Act of 1937, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 1437g, regulations formally published at 24 C.F.R. Part 905; and by contract between HUD and each IHA called an Annual Contributions Contract (ACC). This suit is limited to half of the IHAs under the umbrella of HUD Region VIII—a region that covers IHAs in seven western and mid-western states.

There is no contention that each housing unit must be insured. In fact, each IHA is contractually obligated to the government to provide insurance for all housing units it administers. The responsibility for creating an escrow account to cover the insurance premium is that of each IHA. It became known to HUD’s Assistant Secretary for Housing-Federal Housing Commissioner that many, if not most, IHAs had failed to collect or escrow funds to pay the insurance premiums for the three-year policy period 1977 to 1980. Accordingly, HUD issued Policy Notice H-77-108 to all HUD field offices and IHAs authorizing the field offices to advance the insurance premiums to those IHAs that did not have sufficient funds to pay the premium. Region VIII advanced funds to all IHAs in its district regardless of their financial status because it did not have time to analyze each financial account of the IHAs before the premium became due. The Policy Notice stated that the subsidy advance was to be repaid to HUD pursuant to a payment plan scheduled so as not to place any IHA in “undue financial difficulty.” The Policy Notice also stated that the advance was to be used solely to pay the insurance premium, the IHAs were to immediately establish an escrow account to accumulate funds for the next insurance premium due on November 2, 1980, and if any IHA failed to repay the advance the amount outstanding would be offset against future operating subsidies.

[420]*420HUD Region VIII advanced the insurance premiums to the IHAs it administered and sent each a modified budget, which contained language that “[t]his amount shall be recovered by HUD.” There is vague reference in the record to the effect that one IHA member “remembers” being told in November, 1977 at an IHA conference, by a second level Region VIII employee, that the insurance premium subsidy advances would not have to be repaid. Other IHA representatives do not remember such a statement. On other occasions, less senior Region VIII employees told a few IHA representatives “not to worry about the insurance premium advance because it would not have to be repaid.” Plaintiff claims that until August 28, 1981, the IHAs understood that the advance would not have to be repaid. However, on that date Region VIII formally advised the IHAs that the advances would have to be repaid or the amount owed would be offset against operating subsidies. On August 3, 1981, the Assistant Secretary for Housing-Federal Housing Commissioner wrote the Acting Regional Director of Region VIII telling him, among other things that “[i]n view of the serious financial condition of many IHAs, you may, if necessary, establish repayment schedules for the amounts due in order to minimize any adverse impact on current IHA operations.” Some IHAs repaid the subsidy advance under protest; others refused and Region VIII offset the 1977 premium advance against the latter group by withholding operating subsidies. Despite the varying degrees of financial difficulty the IHAs were experiencing, funds were available for offset due to a last minute budget amendment. To explain, at the outset of fiscal year 1981 HUD reduced the operating subsidy levels for all IHAs to 85.5 percent of the amount previously advanced.' Expenditures were correspondingly reduced by the IHAs to reflect the lower level of federal assistance. But, at the close of fiscal year 1981, HUD increased the subsidy levels to 95.5 percent of previous subsidies. Region VIII used the unexpected windfall subsidy increase to offset virtually all of the premium advances. Plaintiffs claim that Region VIII has or eventually will offset funds totaling $511,875.

DISCUSSION

Defendant argued that this court lacks jurisdiction over this litigation because plaintiffs have not and cannot demonstrate that HUD violated some statute or regulation that can fairly be read to entitle plaintiffs to compensation or to the return of money improperly exacted. E.g., Eastport S.S. Corp. v. United States, 178 Ct.Cl. 599, 605, 372 F.2d 1002, 1007 (1967). Eastport, its predecessors and progeny are referred to as cases in which “ ‘the Government has the citizen’s money in its pocket’ and the claim is ‘to recover an illegal exaction made by officials of the Government, which exaction is based upon a power supposedly conferred by a statute.’ ” Eastport, 178 Ct.Cl. at 606, 372 F.2d 1002 (quoting Clapp v. United States, 127 Ct.Cl. 505, 512-13, 117 F.Supp. 576, 580 (1954)); see also Pan American World Airways, Inc. v. United States, 129 Ct.Cl. 53, 55, 122 F.Supp. 682, 683 (1954).

Another category of cases relied on by plaintiffs includes those where a specific provision of law commands the government to pay money to plaintiff upon proof of conditions that plaintiff is alleged to have met. In this type of case, we have held that “a claimant who says that he is entitled to money from the United States because a statute or a regulation [or the Constitution] grants him that right, in terms or by implication, can properly come to the Court of Claims, at least if his claim is not frivolous but arguable.” Ralston Steel Corp. v. United States, 169 Ct.Cl. 119, 125, 340 F.2d 663, 667 (1965), cert. denied, 381 U.S. 950, 85 S.Ct. 1803, 14 L.Ed.2d 723 (1965).

Under 28 U.S.C. § 1491(a), the jurisdictional question that must always be asked is whether a constitutional clause, separate legislation, a contract or a regulation of an executive agency can fairly be interpreted as mandating compensation by the government for an injury sustained. If not, this court cannot grant relief. In determining whether a particular claim of [421]

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Bluebook (online)
12 Cl. Ct. 417, 1987 U.S. Claims LEXIS 242, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/northern-indian-housing-development-council-v-united-states-cc-1987.