Osage Nation v. United States

66 Fed. Cl. 244, 2005 U.S. Claims LEXIS 199, 2005 WL 1606481
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedJuly 8, 2005
DocketNo. 00-169 L
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 66 Fed. Cl. 244 (Osage Nation 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
Osage Nation v. United States, 66 Fed. Cl. 244, 2005 U.S. Claims LEXIS 199, 2005 WL 1606481 (uscfc 2005).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

HEWITT, Judge.

The court has before it plaintiff Osage Nation’s Objections to Defendant’s Privilege Claims (PL’s Objections or Objections), electronically filed March 31, 2005, Defendant’s Opposition to the Osage Nation’s Objections to Defendant’s Privilege Claims1 (Def.’s Opp’n), electronically filed May 6, 2005, and plaintiff Osage Nation’s Reply in Support of its Objections to Defendant’s Privilege Claims (PL’s Reply), electronically filed May 20, 2005. For the following reasons, the court SUSTAINS plaintiffs objections and ORDERS DEFENDANT TO PRODUCE TO PLAINTIFF the documents provided to the court under seal for in camera review as to which plaintiffs objections remain.

I. Background

Plaintiff objected to defendant’s withholding of certain documents from discovery and submitted to the court a list of “items from [defendant’s] ... draft privilege logs relevant to tranche one claims as to which [plaintiff] believes privilege does not exist.” PL’s Objections at 1; see also id. at 2 (noting the attachment of defendant’s draft privilege logs as exhibits based on plaintiffs understanding that the logs had never been filed with the court). Defendant then submitted its final privilege log, which identified 127 withheld documents,2 along with a substantial brief refuting the legal bases for plaintiffs objections. See generally Def.’s Opp’n; id. at Ex. 1 (Final Privilege Log). Based on its review of the final privilege log, plaintiff withdrew objections to fifty-five of the withheld documents, PL’s Reply at Ex. A (List of Documents as to which Objections Withdrawn), and maintained its objections to the remaining seventy-two (remaining documents or Documents), id. at 2-3. Plaintiff urges'the court to “reject [defendant’s] attempt to assert a blanket claim of attorney-client privilege for all communications between the [f]ederal [government, as trustee of the Osage Nation, and its counsel concerning the administration of that trust” based on “the validity of the fiduciary exception to the attorney-client privilege which this [c]ourt established in its Orders in Shoshone Indian Tribe of the Wind River Reservation, Wyo. v. United States, Nos. 458[1]-79L, 459[1]-79L.” PL’s Objections at 1; see generally Order of May 16, 2002 in Shoshone, Nos. 4581-79L, 4591-79L (Shoshone Order) (applying the fiduciary exception to deny defendant’s motion for a protective order to prevent the deposition and testimony of government counsel).

Plaintiff cites the Shoshone Order for the proposition that “it is well-established in ... this [c]ourt, and in federal courts in general, that the attorney-client privilege does not apply to prevent disclosure to beneficiaries of communications between a trustee and its counsel concerning management and administration of the trust.” PL’s Objections at 4 (internal quotations and citations omitted); see PL’s Reply at 1 (“Under the fiduciary exception, the tribe, as beneficiary of the [Osage tribal] trust, is considered the real client in interest and the [government may not withhold documents relating to the management and operation of the trust on the basis of either the attorney-client privilege or the work product doctrine.”); see also PL’s Objections at 5 (“[A] document [prepared to assist a trustee in its fiduciary capacity] . ■.. is not protected from disclosure even if it also satisfies the elements of some other privilege, such as the work[ ]product privilege.”) (citing Cobell v. Norton, 213 F.R.D. 1, 11-12 (D.D.C.2003) (Cobell II)). Thus, plaintiff argues, “ ‘the trustee seeking to foreclose a beneficiary’s inquiry into trust administration must bear the burden of showing that he or she acted in ... a non-trustee capacity5 and that the advice or communication ‘did not benefit the trust beneficiaries.’” Id. (quoting Cobell v. Norton, 212 F.R.D. 24, 28 (D.D.C.2002) (Cobell I)). Plaintiff urges the [247]*247court to “order [defendant] to immediately release the[] [remaining] documents to the Osage nation, as the beneficiary of the tribal trust.” Pl.’s Reply at 1.

Defendant characterizes the “so-called fiduciary exception [as] a comparatively recent development that has been applied by a relatively small number of courts.” Def.’s Opp’n at 10 (citing Riggs Nat'l Bank v. Zimmer, 355 A.2d 709 (Del.Ch.1976), as the “seminal case applying the exception”). Defendant rejects the analogy of Indian trusts to private trust relationships on which this court’s Shoshone Order and the orders in Cobell are founded. See id. at 1 (“[A] govemment-to-govemment relationship between the United States and a Tribe ... resembles a trust relationship only where Congress has placed specific fiduciary duties on a federal agency.”). Defendant argues that the Shoshone Order and Cobell I “extended the [fiduciary exception] doctrine beyond prior judicial precedent” by applying it to the relationship between the Department of Interior (Interi- or) and Indian tribes. Id. at 12. Defendant urges the court in this case not “to follow Cobell’s extension of the fiduciary exception ... [and to] reconsider its conclusions in Shoshone.” Id. at 13.

The court considers each of the parties’ arguments in turn.

II. Discussion

Defendant maintains that the fiduciary exception is inapplicable in this case for two reasons. First, plaintiff should not be considered the “real client” of the legal advice sought or received by the federal trustee for several reasons:

(a) ... the government attorney’s duty of loyalty is to the United States, which has a distinct and independent sovereign interest in fulfilling its statutory trust duties, ... [and this duty of loyalty requires] the attorney [to] take into account multiple interests [which] may be at odds with a tribal beneficiary; ([b]) ... courts and Congress have recognized that Indian beneficiaries are not entitled to the confidential or privileged communications of the federal trustee; and ([e]) tribal beneficiaries do not pay for the advice or work product received by the federal trustee.

Id. at 1-2. Second, defendant argues that “Indian beneficiaries have multiple avenues for obtaining complete and accurate information about the administration of their trust” and thus are not analogous to beneficiaries of private trusts. Id. at 2.

A. Whether Tribal Beneficiaries Are the “Real Client” in Interest of Legal Advice Regarding the Government’s Administration of Indian Trusts

1. Whether the Fiduciary Exception Does Not Apply Because Legal Advice Given to the Government Must Account for Competing Interests

Defendant reasons that the “ ‘real client’” of legal advice regarding fiduciary matters “should not be deemed to be individual Indians or tribes, but the Secretary of the Interior or other federal agencies.” Id. at 16. Defendant claims that “the United States does not have an undivided duty of loyalty to Indian tribes” because of its varied obligations. Id. at 17; see id.

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In re United States
590 F.3d 1305 (Federal Circuit, 2009)
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
66 Fed. Cl. 244, 2005 U.S. Claims LEXIS 199, 2005 WL 1606481, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/osage-nation-v-united-states-uscfc-2005.