PAUL GRONDAL V. USA, No. 21-35507 (9th Cir. 2022)
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In a series of appeals concerning a business lease which Defendant Wapato Heritage, LLC, once held on waterfront land within the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington State, the Ninth Circuit affirmed (1) the district court’s dismissal of Wapato Heritage cross-claims against the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and the Bureau of Indian Affairs; and (2) the district court’s denial of Wapato Heritage’s motion to intervene in a trespass damages trial between the Bureau of Indian Affairs and other parties. The district court dismissed Wapato Heritage’s cross-claims against the Tribes and the BIA because of tribal sovereign immunity, lack of subject matter jurisdiction, and failure to state a claim
The court explained the instances where tribal participation in litigation will constitute a waiver of tribal sovereign immunity must be viewed as very limited exceptions to the general rule that preserves tribal sovereign immunity absent an unequivocal expression of waiver in clear terms. Here, the Tribes did not waive their sovereign immunity to Wapato Heritage’s cross-claims as to the 2009 and 2014 replacement leases. The Tribes invoked their immunity from suit in two Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(1) motions to dismiss Wapato Heritage’s cross-claims for lack of jurisdiction, which was granted. The Tribes retained their sovereign immunity to the cross-claims, and the district court did not need to rule on the claims’ merits. The court rejected Wapato Heritage’s contention that the appeal did not relate to Indian Trust land, finding that MA-8 was still Indian allotment land held in trust by the BIA.
Court Description: Tribal Matters. In a series of appeals concerning a business lease which Defendant-Appellant Wapato Heritage, LLC, once held on waterfront land within the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington State, the panel affirmed (1) the district court’s dismissal of Wapato Heritage cross-claims against the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and the Bureau of Indian Affairs; and (2) the district court’s denial of Wapato Heritage’s motion to intervene in a trespass damages trial between the Bureau of Indian Affairs and other parties. The parcel of land is known as Moses Allotment 8 (MA- 8) on Lake Chelan. Wapato Heritage accused the individual beneficial owners of this land – the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation (the “Tribes”) and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (“BIA”) – of misconduct relating to the business lease. This court previously concluded that Wapato Heritage’s business lease expired in 2009, and the land at issue was still Indian land held in trust by the United States. The district court dismissed Wapato Heritage’s cross claims against the Tribes and the BIA because of tribal sovereign immunity, lack of subject matter-jurisdiction, and failure to state a claim. The panel first rejected Wapato Heritage’s contention that the Tribes waived their tribal sovereign immunity by 4 GRONDAL V. UNITED STATES generally participating in this case. The instances where tribal participation in litigation will constitute a waiver of tribal sovereign immunity must be viewed as very limited exceptions to the general rule that preserves tribal sovereign immunity absent an unequivocal expression of waiver in clear terms. Here, the Tribes did not waive their sovereign immunity to Wapato Heritage’s cross-claims as to the 2009 and 2014 replacement leases. The Tribes invoked their immunity from suit in two Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(1) motions to dismiss Wapato Heritage’s cross-claims for lack of jurisdiction, which were granted. The Tribes retained their sovereign immunity to the cross-claims, and the district court did not need to rule on the claims’ merits. Second, Wapato Heritage contended that its cross-claims against the BIA were erroneously dismissed for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction and failure to state a claim. The panel affirmed the district court’s conclusions and held to the extent that Wapato Heritage was seeking to recover money damages from the United States, the district court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction to entertain the relevant cross- claims under the Tucker Act and the Little Tucker Act. Although the cross-claims could also be construed as requests to compel agency action, Wapato Heritage failed to state a claim for a writ of mandamus. Dismissal under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) therefore was appropriate and there was no reason to transfer the cross-claims to the Court of Federal Claims. Third, Wapato Heritage contended that this appeal did not relate to Indian Trust land. The panel rejected this contention because this court recently concluded that MA-8 was still Indian allotment land held in trust by the BIA. See Grondal v. United States, 21 F. 4th 1140, 1145 (9th Cir. 2021). GRONDAL V. UNITED STATES 5 Finally, the panel held that the district court properly denied Wapato Heritage’s motion to intervene in a trespass damages trial between Paul Grondal, Mill Bay RV Park, and the BIA. The parties agreed that this was a Fed. R. Civ. P. 24(a)(2) motion to intervene as a matter of right. The panel held that the criteria for Rule 24(a)(2) were not met here. As a threshold matter, Wapato Heritage lacked intervenor standing because its argument for intervention was based on Mill Bay’s alleged threats to sue Wapato Heritage for indemnification of trespass damages awarded against Mill Bay. There was no evidence in the record, however, that any such lawsuit had been filed by Mill Bay, and conjectural or hypothetical injuries cannot create Article III standing. In addition, Wapato Heritage faced no direct liability in this trespass damages trial and was not bound by the judgment because it was excluded from those proceedings. And Mill Bay adequately represented Wapato Heritage’s interests because they had the same goal of minimizing the trespass damages awarded. The panel concluded that Wapato Heritage had not set out any legitimate ground for vacating the verdict entered in the trespass damages bench trial.
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