Shoshone Indian Tribe of the Wind River Reservation v. United States

71 Fed. Cl. 172, 163 Oil & Gas Rep. 387, 2006 U.S. Claims LEXIS 75, 2006 WL 786923
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedMarch 27, 2006
DocketNos. 4582-79 L, 4583-79 L, 4592-70 L, 4593-79 L
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 71 Fed. Cl. 172 (Shoshone Indian Tribe of the Wind River Reservation 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
Shoshone Indian Tribe of the Wind River Reservation v. United States, 71 Fed. Cl. 172, 163 Oil & Gas Rep. 387, 2006 U.S. Claims LEXIS 75, 2006 WL 786923 (uscfc 2006).

Opinion

OPINION and ORDER

HEWITT, Judge.

Before the court is Tribes’ Motion for Leave to Amend Petitions (Pis.’ Mot. or Motion), Defendant’s Response to Tribes’ Motion for Leave to Amend Petitions (Def.’s Resp.), and Tribes’ Reply Memorandum Re Motion to Amend Petitions (Pis.’ Reply). The Motion and responsive briefs were filed [173]*173simultaneously in subdockets 4582-79L/4592-79L and 4583-79L/4593-79L.1

I. Background

This case was filed in 1979 by the Eastern Shoshone and the Northern Arapaho Tribes (collectively, the Tribes), both resident on and owners of an undivided half interest in the Wind River Reservation of Wyoming. See Tribes’ Motion at 1-2. The Tribes sought damages from the United States for breach of trust in mismanaging the tribes’ natural resources up to the point of collection and with respect to its handling of tribal funds post-collection. Id. at 2. This complex case, involving both trust asset and trust mismanagement issues across a range of resources including sand, gravel, oil, and gas, has been divided into four phases for adjudication. See Order of June 13, 2001. While two phases have been litigated2 and have reached settlement,3 other phases remain at earlier stages of litigation. The current motion, filed simultaneously in two subdockets, is of general import to all phases because the petitions that plaintiffs propose to amend underlie all phases of the case.4 Resolution of the Tribes’ Motion requires the court to [174]*174address its jurisdiction under relevant statutes of limitations as interpreted in recent case law.

Through the Tucker Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1491 (2000), Congress authorized the United States Court of Federal Claims to “render judgment upon any claim against the United States founded either upon the Constitution, or any Act of Congress or any regulation of an executive department, or upon any express or implied contract with the United States, or for liquidated or unliquidated damages in cases not sounding in tort.” 28 U.S.C. § 1491(a)(1). The Indian Tucker Act makes explicit that this court’s jurisdiction extends to claims by “any tribe, band, or other identifiable group of American Indians” against the United States accruing after August 13, 1946. 28 U.S.C. § 1505 (2000) (collectively, the Tucker Act and the Indian Tucker Act are referred to as the Tucker Acts). The significance of the accrual date established in 28 U.S.C. § 1505 is not that it sets a cut-off point constituting the earliest date from which injury on a later-accruing claim could be calculated, but rather that Congress had expressly provided that all claims accruing prior to August 13, 1946 were to be heard by the Indian Claims Commission, created by legislation enacted by Congress on that date. See Indian Claims Commission Act, eh. 959, § 2, 60 Stat. 1049, 1050 (1946) (“No claim accruing after the date of approval of this Act shall be considered by the Commission.”).

The general statute of limitations for claims under the Tucker Acts establishes a six-year jurisdictional window from the date of accrual of a claim. 28 U.S.C. § 2501 (2000) (“Every claim of which the United States Court of Federal Claims has jurisdiction shall be barred unless the petition thereon is filed within six years after such claim first accrues.”). Congress has clarified the meaning of the “date of accrual” of certain Indian trust claims in a series of appropriations acts beginning in 1990 and continuing to the present (collectively, Appropriations Acts).5 The current (2006) Appropriations Act provides in pertinent part that

notwithstanding any other provision of law, the statute of limitations shall not commence to run on any claim, including any claim in litigation pending on the date of the enactment of this Act, concerning losses to or mismanagement of trust funds, until the affected tribe or individual Indian has been furnished with an accounting of such funds from which the beneficiary can determine whether there has been a loss.

Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2006 (2006 Appropriations Act), Pub.L. No. 109-54, 119 Stat. 499, 519. The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit construed identical language from the 2003 Appropriations Act in an appeal from this court’s statute of limitations holding pertaining to asset and trust fund management claims in the sand and gravel phase of this case.6 See Shoshone Indian Tribe of the Wind River Reservation v. United States, 364 F.3d 1339, 1346-47, reh’g and reh’g en banc denied (Fed.Cir.2004) (Shoshone). The Federal Circuit found that “[b]y the plain language of the [2003 Appropriations] Act, Congress has expressly waived its sovereign immunity and deferred the accrual of the Tribes’ cause of action until an accounting is [175]*175provided.” Id. at 1346. While affirming this court’s decision that the Appropriations Acts prevent the accrual of asset and trust fund management claims until after the Tribes receive an accounting, the Federal Circuit also defined and delimited the asset and trust fund management claims as to which accrual was prevented by the Appropriations Acts as “those relating to (1) the Government’s mismanagement of tribal trust funds after their collection and (2) losses to the trust resulting from the Government’s failure to timely collect amounts due and owing to the Tribes under its sand and gravel contracts.” Id. at 1342.

With respect to the sand and gravel claims at issue in that phase of this case, the Federal Circuit noted that “the Supreme Court’s recent decision in United States v. Navajo Nation may moot the Tribes’ claims relating to a breach of trust for asset mismanagement pursuant to the Indian Mineral Leasing Act [ (IMLA) ] of 1938, i.e., claims that the Government failed to obtain the best possible market rates for the sand and gravel contracts.” Shoshone, 364 F.3d at 1349 (citing United States v. Navajo Nation, 537 U.S. 488, 123 S.Ct. 1079, 155 L.Ed.2d 60 (2003)). The Federal Circuit particularly noted the Supreme Court’s determination that the government did not have an enforceable duty to ensure a higher rate of return than the minimum royalty established by statute. Id. (citing Navajo Nation, 537 U.S. at 507-08, 123 S.Ct. 1079). Applying this determination to the mismanagement claims raised by the Tribes relative to their sand and gravel assets, the Federal Circuit found that “the Government did not have a fiduciary or statutory duty to maximize the prices obtained under the leases entered into between the tribes and third parties.” Id. at 1350.

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71 Fed. Cl. 172, 163 Oil & Gas Rep. 387, 2006 U.S. Claims LEXIS 75, 2006 WL 786923, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shoshone-indian-tribe-of-the-wind-river-reservation-v-united-states-uscfc-2006.