Trial Court Is Reversed.
Above: Judge James Wickersham in council with Indian chiefs. Fairbanks, Alaska. c1900-1907. Library of Congress.
“As a matter of federal law, an Indian tribe is subject to suit only where Congress has authorized the suit or the tribe has waived its [sovereign] immunity.” Kiowa Tribe v. Manufacturing Tech., 523 U.S. 751, 760 (1998). The issue in Findleton v. Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, No. A142560 (1/2 7/29/16) (Stewart, Kline, Richman) was whether, as a matter of law subject to de novo review, the resolutions of the Tribe’s General Council authorized its Tribal Council to waive the Tribe’s sovereign immunity for purposes of arbitrating contractual disputes with construction contractor Robert Findleton.
Reversing the trial court, the Court of Appeal concluded that the resolution of the General Council authorized the Tribal Council to waive the Tribe’s tribal immunity, and the Tribal Council did so with a broadly worded resolution. On a remand, the trial court will probably have to decide whether the court or the arbitrator needs to decide whether tribal administrative remedies were exhausted.
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