Pearsall v. Tribal Council for the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon

4 Am. Tribal Law 147
CourtGrand Ronde Tribal Court
DecidedJanuary 27, 2003
DocketNo. C-02-10-007
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 4 Am. Tribal Law 147 (Pearsall v. Tribal Council for the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Grand Ronde Tribal Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pearsall v. Tribal Council for the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon, 4 Am. Tribal Law 147 (grrondect 2003).

Opinion

[148]*148ORDER GRANTING TRIBAL COUNCIL’S MOTION TO DISMISS FIRST AMENDED COMPLAINT;ORDER DENYING MOTIONS FOR SANCTIONS AND FOR VEXATIOUS LITIGANT ORDER

KATHARINE ENGLISH, Chief Judge.

A. BACKGROUND; INTRODUCTION

As noted in the Court’s earlier Order Denying Petitioner Pearsall’s Motion for Issuance of a Temporary Restraining Order, in this proceeding he has filed a complaint against the Tribal Council, the Tribe, and three individuals, all of whom are members of the Tribal Council, as is Petitioner himself. In his first amended complaint, Petitioner generally alleges that the Tribal Council has acted unlawfully in allowing Motions to Intervene and to Stay to be filed in five on-going ethics matters brought under the Tribal Ethical Standards Ordinance (TESO) and in hiring and paying “ ‘outside counsel’ with Tribal funds to prepare, file and pursue these motions.” (First Amended Complaint at 5).

Petitioner’s first claim for relief in his Amended Complaint seeks the issuance of a Declaratory Judgment stating that the “Tribal Council has not lawfully given any authority or direction to file in its name Motions to Intervene and to Stay any of these ethics investigations, nor to hire outside counsel with Tribal funds[.]” His second claim asks for the issuance of an Injunction Prohibiting Tribal Council members Leno, Reibaeh, and Haller from “participating in deliberation on those matters,” enjoining Tribal Council “from counting any of their votes on these matters,” and ordering Leno, Reibaeh, and Haller “to disclose on the record the nature and extent of his interests in these matters as required under TESO.” (First Amended Complaint at 6). Petitioner’s third claim seeks the issuance of a Writ of Mandamus to the Tribal Council directing “that all action allegedly on behalf of Tribal Council on the Motions by outside counsel be stopped, if and until Tribal Council establishes to the Tribal Court that lawful authorization under a duly adopted written resolution by a disinterested or qualified majority of Tribal Council in a public meeting has occurred in compliance with the Tribal Constitution and Code.” (First Amended Complaint at 6).

Petitioner’s fourth through seventh claims set out in his First Amended Complaint sought damages for breach of contract, wrongful termination, interference with contractual relations, and for an alleged civil rights violation. Petitioner has since voluntarily dismissed those claims.

The Tribal Council has filed a Motion to Dismiss Petitioner’s First Amended Complaint, contending that his first three claims should be dismissed because he lacks standing to bring them and because “the Council acted well within its discretion in deciding to intervene” in the ethics matters. (Motion to Dismiss at 1). The Motion to Dismiss also asserts that Petitioner’s four other claims should be dismissed because they are “barred by sovereign immunity” and by the doctrine of res judicata and because Petitioner “has failed to exhaust his administrative remedies.” (Motion to Dismiss at 1). The Council also has filed a Motion Seeking the Imposition of Sanctions Against Petitioner under Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) and another Motion for entry of a Vexatious Litigant Order. Those three Motions are now before the Court.

B. ANALYSIS

1. Motion to Dismiss

Because Petitioner has voluntarily dismissed his fourth through seventh claims [149]*149for relief, the Council’s Motion to Dismiss those claims is effectively moot. The Motion to Dismiss the remaining claims, seeking issuance of a Declaratory Judgment, an Injunction, or a Writ of Mandamus, is still viable, however. As noted above, the Council’s Motion to Dismiss those claims is based on the contentions that Petitioner lacks standing to bring those claims and that, in any event, the Council acts, well within the bounds of its discretion in deciding to intervene in the on-going ethics matters. As explained below, because the court concludes that Petitioner lacks standing the Court need not consider the other basis for the Motion to Dismiss.

Under the United States Constitution, “the federal courts have jurisdiction over [a] dispute * * v only if it is a ‘case’ or ‘controversy.’ This is a ‘bedrock requirement.’ ” Raines v. Byrd, 521 U.S. 811, 818, 117 S.Ct. 2312, 138 L.Ed.2d 849 (1997), quoting Valley Forge Christian College v. Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Inc., 454 U.S. 464, 471, 102 S.Ct. 752, 70 L.Ed.2d 700 (1982). “One element of the case-or-controversy requirement is that [plaintiffs], based on their complaint, must establish that they have standing to sue.” Raines, 521 U.S. at 818, 117 S.Ct. 2312, citing Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 561, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 119 L.Ed.2d 351 (1992). To meet the standing requirement, “ ‘[a] Plaintiff must allege personal injury fairly traceable to the Defendant’s allegedly unlawful conduct * * *.’ ” Raines, 521 U.S. at 818-19, 117 S.Ct. 2312, quoting Allen v. Wright, 468 U.S. 737, 751, 104 S.Ct. 3315, 82 L.Ed.2d 556 (1984) (emphasis added in Raines). The United States Supreme Court has

consistently stressed that a Plaintiffs complaint must establish that he has a “personal stake” in the alleged dispute, and that the alleged injury suffered is particularized as to him. See, e.g., Lujan, supra, at 560-61 and n. 1, 112 S.Ct. 2130 (to have standing, the Plaintiff must have suffered a “particularized” injury, which means that “the injury must affect the Plaintiff in a personal and individual way”); Bender v. Williamsport Area School Dist., 475 U.S. 534, 543-44, 106 S.Ct. 1326, 89 L.Ed.2d 501 (1986) (school board member who “has no personal stake in the outcome of the litigation” has no standing); Simon [v. Eastern Ky. Welfare Rights Organization, 426 U.S. 26, 39, 96 S.Ct. 1917, 48 L.Ed.2d 450 (1976)], (“The necessity that the Plaintiff who seeks to invoke the judicial power stand to profit in some personal interest remains an Art. Ill requirement”).

Raines, at 819, 117 S.Ct. 2312.

Moreover, the Court’s “standing inquiry has been especially rigorous when reaching the merits of the dispute would force [the Court] to decide whether an action taken by one of the other two branches of the Federal Government was unconstitutional.” Id., at 819-20, 117 S.Ct. 2312 (citations omitted). In sum, to have standing Plaintiffs must meet “their burden of establishing that their claimed injury is personal, particularized, concrete, and otherwise judicially cognizable.” Id. at 820, 117 S.Ct. 2312.

Here, Petitioner cannot meet that burden.

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4 Am. Tribal Law 147, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pearsall-v-tribal-council-for-the-confederated-tribes-of-the-grand-ronde-grrondect-2003.