Yellowfish v. City of Stillwater

691 F.2d 926
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedApril 28, 1982
DocketNo. 81-1948
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 691 F.2d 926 (Yellowfish v. City of Stillwater) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Yellowfish v. City of Stillwater, 691 F.2d 926 (10th Cir. 1982).

Opinion

SEYMOUR, Circuit Judgé.

The City of Stillwater filed a petition in federal district court to condemn easements over the trust allotments of the nine Indian appellants (hereinafter collectively referred to as “Yellowfish”) and other Indians in Noble County, Oklahoma, for the purpose of constructing a municipal water supply pipeline. The United States was joined as a defendant because the allotments under condemnation were originally issued under the General Allotment Act of 1887, 25 U.S.C. § 331 et seq., with legal title to the land retained by the United States as trustee.

Jurisdiction is predicated on section 3 of the Act of March 3, 1901, 25 U.S.C. § 357 (section 357), which provides that “[ljands allotted in severalty to Indians may be condemned for any public purpose under the laws of the State or Territory where located in the same manner as land owned in fee may be condemned .... ” Yellowfish contends that section 357 was impliedly repealed in part by the Act of February 5, 1948, 25 U.S.C. §§ 323-328 (1948 Act),1 which empowers the Secretary of the Interior to grant rights-of-way with the consent of Indian allottees.2 If this were so, the district court would not have subject matter jurisdiction under section 357 to proceed with the proposed condemnation in this case. However, we disagree with Yellow-fish and affirm the trial court holding that federal courts have jurisdiction under section 357 to condemn rights-of-way over allotted Indian land without secretarial or Indian consent.

I.

Background

After the condemnation petition was filed, the Bureau of Indian Affairs sent [928]*928letters to each of the 110 allottee defendants informing them they could have the United States Attorney represent them in the condemnation action. The nine Indian appellants decided instead to retain private counsel. The trial court concluded that section 357 was not repealed by implication and refused to dismiss the case or stay ongoing proceedings. The court also refused to prohibit the City of Stillwater from taking possession of the condemned allotments in order to construct the water pipeline.

Yellowfish filed a petition for permission to take an interlocutory appeal from the trial court’s order and a motion for a stay pending appeal. We granted permission for the interlocutory appeal but denied the stay pending appeal. The two issues on appeal are (1) whether federal court jurisdiction is absent because condemnation of rights-of-way under section 357 was impliedly repealed by the 1948 Act, and (2) whether the United States in its capacity as a trustee is required to disclose more specifically its grounds for asserting that right-of-way condemnations are in the best interest of Indians.

II.

Federal Court Jurisdiction and Implied Repeal of Section 357

It is a “cardinal rule” that the repeal of a statute by implication is not favored. Morton v. Mancari, 417 U.S. 535, 549, 94 S.Ct. 2474, 2482, 41 L.Ed.2d 290 (1974); Universal Interpretive Shuttle Corp. v. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Commission, 393 U.S. 186, 193, 89 S.Ct. 354, 358, 21 L.Ed.2d 334 (1968). The implied repeal of a statute of longstanding use may be viewed with even greater disfavor. See Mancari, 417 U.S. at 549, 94 S.Ct. at 2482. “The courts are not at liberty to pick and choose among congressional enactments, and when two statutes are capable of co-existence, it is the duty of the courts, absent a clearly expressed congressional intention to the contrary, to regard each as effective.” Andrus v. Glover Construction Co., 446 U.S. 608, 618-19, 100 S.Ct. 1905, 1911, 64 L.Ed.2d 548 (1980) (quoting Mancari, 417 U.S. at 551, 94 S.Ct. at 2483). See Steed v. Roundy, 342 F.2d 159, 161 (10th Cir. 1965).

Based on its interpretation of Glover Construction, 446 U.S. at 618-19, 100 S.Ct. at 1911, Yellowfish contends that when a partial repeal is advocated the rule that implied repeals are not favored does not apply. Yellowfish has misconstrued Glover Construction and we find no merit in the argument that the partial implied repeal of a statute should be viewed with less disfavor. We also reject Yellowfish’s contention that the presumption against implied repeal is not applicable when various Indian statutes are involved. See Plains Electric Generation & Transmission Cooperative v. Pueblo of Laguna, 542 F.2d 1375, 1376-1381 (10th Cir. 1976).

There are two well accepted categories of repeal by implication: “ ‘(1) where provisions in the two acts are in irreconcilable conflict, the later act to the extent of the conflict constitutes an implied repeal of the earlier one; and (2) if the later act covers the whole subject of the earlier one and is clearly intended as a substitute, it will operate similarly as a repeal of the earlier act.’ ” Plains Electric, 542 F.2d at 1376 (quoting Posadas v. National City Bank, 296 U.S. 497, 503, 56 S.Ct. 349, 352, 80 L.Ed. 351 (1936)). In either situation, legislative history and congressional intent are important factors, Plains Electric, 542 F.2d at 1376, but the intent of the legislature must be “clear and manifest” to uphold an implied repeal. Posadas, 296 U.S. at 503, 56 S.Ct. at 352.

Yellowfish contends our reasoning in Plains Electric dictates that we should hold section 357 partially repealed by implication. In that case, we held condemnation under a 1926 Act3 impermissible because that Act was replaced and impliedly repealed by a 1928 Act4 and by the 1948 Act, both of which require the Secretary’s con[929]*929sent to right-of-way grants. Yellowfish asserts that section 357 is “strikingly similar in effect” to the 1926 Act and therefore was impliedly repealed as well.

Although the 1926 Act and section 357 have similarities, the important difference is that section 357 authorizes condemnation of allotted land, while the 1926 Act allowed condemnation of lands communally owned by the Pueblo Indians.5 See Plains Electric, 542 F.2d at 1377. The different treatment accorded by Congress to Indian tribal land and land allotted in severalty to individual Indians has been explained by several courts. See United States v. Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co., 318 U.S. 206, 211-215, 63 S.Ct. 534, 536-38, 87 L.Ed. 716 (1943); United States v. 10.69 Acres of Land,

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