Northern Valley Indian Health, Inc. v. United States

• Court: District Court, E.D. California
• Decided: September 16, 2025
• Docket: 2:24-cv-02154
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

1 AHdoabmbs ,P S. tBraauilse,y D (eCaAn &B aWr Nalok.e 2r,7 L82L0P8 ) 2 1903 21st St., 3rd Floor Sacramento, CA 95811 3 Phone: (916) 442-9444 Fax: (916) 442-8344 4 Email: abailey@hobbsstraus.com

5 Attorneys for Plaintiff

6 ERIC GRANT United States Attorney 7 JOSEPH FRUEH Assistant United States Attorney 8 501 I Street, Suite 10-100 Sacramento, CA 95814 9 E-mail: joseph.frueh@usdoj.gov Telephone: (916) 554-2702 10 Facsimile: (916) 554-2900

11 Attorneys for Defendants

13 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

14 EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

15 NORTHERN VALLEY INDIAN HEALTH, No. 2:24-CV-02154-DJC-DMC INC., 16 AMENDED JOINT STATUS REPORT, Plaintiff, STIPULATION, AND ORDER FOR STAYING 17 CASE v. 18 ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR.,1 in his official 19 capacity as Secretary, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, et al., 20 Defendants. 21

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27 1 Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., was sworn in as the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services on February 13, 2025. Pursuant to Rule 25(d) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, he 28 should be substituted automatically for Xavier Becerra as the defendant in this action. 1 AMENDED JOINT STATUS REPORT, STIPULATION, AND PROPOSED ORDER 2 Pursuant to the Court’s Order (ECF 15) dated June 17, 2025, the parties provide this status report 3 and stipulate, subject to Court approval, that this action be stayed while the parties work toward 4 consummating their settlement in principle; and that the parties file a Joint Status Report on or before 5 January 23, 2026. The reasons for this stipulation are as follows. 6 1. A court may stay proceedings as part of its inherent power “to control the disposition of 7 the causes on its docket with economy of time and effort for itself, for counsel, and for litigants.” 8 Landis v. N. Am. Co., 299 U.S. 248, 254 (1936); see also, e.g., Clinton v. Jones, 520 U.S. 681, 706 9 (1997) (“The District Court has broad discretion to stay proceedings as an incident to its power to 10 control its own docket.”). 11 2. This case involves claims for “contract support costs” associated with program income 12 that a Tribal organization expends on health programs that it has contracted to operate under the Indian 13 Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (“ISDEAA”), 25 U.S.C. §§ 5301–5423. Plaintiff filed 14 this action shortly after the Supreme Court recognized such claims as cognizable under the ISDEAA in 15 Becerra v. San Carlos Apache Tribe, 602 U.S. 222 (2024). 16 3. The parties reached a settlement in principle on or about August 5, 2025. The settlement 17 was supported by the Acting United States Attorney and the Indian Health Service within the United 18 States Department of Health and Human Services. 19 4. The United States Attorney’s Office forwarded the parties’ proposed written settlement 20 agreement to the Federal Programs Branch of the Civil Division of the United States Department of 21 Justice on August 5, 2025. The Federal Programs Branch is charged with transmitting the proposed 22 written settlement agreement to the United States Attorney General’s designee for final review and 23 approval. 24 5. The Federal Programs Branch advises that final review and approval of the settlement has 25 been delayed because of significantly reduced staffing and an extremely high volume of litigation 26 involving the Federal Programs Branch. As of September 8, 2025, the Federal Programs Branch 27 anticipated that final review and approval of the proposed written settlement agreement likely would 28 take an additional 60 days. 1 6. The parties propose filing a Joint Status Report on or before January 23, 2026. 2 3 Dated: September 15, 2025 HOBBS, STRAUS, DEAN & WALKER, LLP 4 By: /s/ Adam P. Bailey (authorized 9/15/2025) ADAM P. BAILEY 5 Attorneys for Plaintiff 6 7 Dated: September 16, 2025 ERIC GRANT United States Attorney 8 By: /s/ Joseph Frueh 9 JOSEPH FRUEH Assistant United States Attorney 10 Attorneys for Defendants 11 12 IT IS SO ORDERED 13

14 Dated: September 16, 2025 /s/ Daniel J. Calabretta THE HONORABLE DANIEL J. CALABRETTA 15 UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE 16

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