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STATE OF ARIZONA, COMPLAINANT v. STATE OF CALIFORNIA et al. | Supreme Court | LII / Legal Information Institute
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514 U.S. 1081 115 S.Ct.1790131 L. Ed. 2d 720 (, )
[HTML] conc_diss, Rehnquist, O'Connor, Thomas
The first round of the litigation culminated in our opinion in Arizona I. We agreed with Special Master Rifkind that the apportionment of Colorado River water was governed by the Boulder Canyon Project Act of 1928, 43 U.S.C. 617 et seq., and by contracts entered into by the Secretary of the Interior pursuant to the Act. We further agreed that the United States had reserved water rights for the five reservations under the doctrine of Winters v. United States, 207 U.S. 564 (1908). See Arizona I, 373 U.S., at 565, 599_601. Because the Tribes' water rights were effective as of the time each reservation was created, the rights were considered present perfected rights and given priority under the Act. Id., at 600. We also agreed with the Master that the reservations' water rights should be based on the amount of practicably irrigable acreage on each reservation and sustained his findings as to the relevant acreage for each reservation. Ibid. Those findings were incorporated in our decree of March 9, 1964, which specified the quantities and priorities of the water entitlements for the States, the United States, and the Tribes. Arizona v. California, 376 U.S. 340. The Court rejected as premature, however, Master Rifkind's recommendation to determine the disputed boundaries of the Fort Mojave and Colorado River Indian Reservations; we ordered, instead, that water rights for those two reservations "shall be subject to appropriate adjustment by agreement or decree of this Court in the event that the boundaries of the respective reservations are finally determined." Id., at 345.
The district court litigation proceeded with the participation of eight parties: the United States, the States of Arizona and California, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the Coachella Valley Water District, and the Quechan, Fort Mojave, and Colorado River Indian Tribes. The District Court rejected the United States' sovereign immunity defense; taking up the Fort Mojave Reservation matter first, the court voided the Secretary's determination of that reservation's boundaries. Metropolitan Water Dist. of S. Cal. v. United States, 628 F. Supp. 1018 (SD Cal. 1986). The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, however, accepted the United States' plea of sovereign immunity, and on that ground reversed and remanded with instructions to dismiss the entire case. Specifically, the Court of Appeals held that the Quiet Title Act, 28 U.S.C. 2409a preserved the United States' sovereign immunity from suits challenging the United States' title "to trust or restricted Indian lands," §2409a(a), and therefore blocked recourse to the District Court by the States and state agencies. Metropolitan Water Dist. of S. Cal. v. United States, 830 F.2d 139 (1987). We granted certiorari and affirmed the Ninth Circuit's judgment by an equally divided Court. California v. United States, 490 U.S. 920 (1989) (per curiam).
In 1946, Congress enacted the Indian Claims Commission Act, 60 Stat. 1049, 25 U.S.C. 70 et seq. (1976 ed.), establishing an Article I tribunal with power to decide claims of Indian tribes against the United States.
See generally United States v. Dann, 470 U.S. 39 (1985). The Tribe filed an action before the Commission in 1951, challenging the validity and effect of the 1893 Agreement. In that action, referred to by the parties as Docket No. 320, the Tribe relied principally on two mutually exclusive grounds for relief. First, the Tribe alleged that the 1893 Agreement was obtained through fraud, coercion, and/or inadequate consideration, rendering it "wholly nugatory." Petition for Loss of Reservation in Docket No. 320 (Ind. Cl. Comm'n.), ¶¶15_16, reprinted in Brief for United States in Support of Exception, pp. 11a_27a. At the very least, contended the Tribe, the United States had failed to perform the obligations enumerated in the 1893 Agreement, rendering the cession void. Id., at ¶31. In either event, the Tribe claimed continuing title to the disputed lands and sought damages essentially for trespass. Alternatively, the Tribe alleged that the 1893 Agreement was contractually valid but constituted an uncompensated taking of tribal lands, an appropriation of lands for unconscionable consideration, and/or a violation of standards of fair and honorable dealing, for which §§2(3)_(5) of the Act authorized recovery. Id., at ¶¶19, 22, 25. According to this theory of recovery, the 1893 Agreement had indeed vested in the United States unconditional title to the disputed lands, and the Tribe sought damages as compensation for that taking. During the more than quarter-century of litigation in Docket No. 320, the Tribe vacillated between these two grounds for relief, sometimes emphasizing one and sometimes the other. See Quechan Tribe of Fort Yuma Reservation v. United States, 26 Ind. Cl. Comm'n. 15 (1971), reprinted in Brief for United States in Support of Exception, pp. 29a_34a.
In the meantime, the Tribe had asked the Department of the Interior to reconsider its 1936 Margold Opinion regarding the 1893 Agreement. In 1977, Interior Solicitor Scott Austin concluded, in accord with the 1936 opinion, that the 1893 Agreement was valid and that the cession of the disputed lands had been unconditional. Opinion of the Solicitor, No. M_36886 (Jan. 18, 1977), 84 I. D. 1 (1977) (Austin Opinion). It soon became clear both to the Tribe and to interested Members of Congress, however, that the Austin Opinion had provoked controversy within the Department, and, after the election of President Carter, the Department revisited the issue and reversed course. In 1978, without notice to the parties, Solicitor Leo Krulitz issued an opinion concluding that the 1893 Agreement had provided for a conditional cession of the disputed lands, that the conditions had not been met by the United States, and that "title to the subject property is held by the United States in trust for the Quechan Tribe." Opinion of the Solicitor, No. M_36908 (Dec. 20, 1978), 86 I. D. 3, 22 (1979) (Krulitz Opinion). On December 20, 1978, the Secretary of the Interior issued a Secretarial Order adopting the Krulitz Opinion and confirming the Tribe's entitlement to the disputed lands, with the express exception of certain lands that the United States had acquired pursuant to Act of Congress or had conveyed to third parties.
In August 1983, a few months after this Court decided in Arizona II that the 1978 Secretarial Order did not constitute a final determination of reservation boundaries, see supra, at 4, the United States and the Tribe entered into a settlement of Docket No. 320, which the Court of Claims approved and entered as its final judgment. Under the terms of that settlement, the United States agreed to pay the Tribe $15 million in full satisfaction of "all rights, claims, or demands which plaintiff i.e., the Tribe has asserted or could have asserted with respect to the claims in Docket 320." Final Judgment, Docket No. 320 (Aug. 11, 1983). The judgment further provided that "plaintiff shall be barred thereby from asserting any further rights, claims, or demands against the defendant and any future action on the claims encompassed on Docket 320." Ibid. The United States and the Tribe also stipulated that the "final judgment is based on a compromise and settlement and shall not be construed as an admission by either party for the purposes of precedent or argument in any other case." Ibid. Both the Tribe and the United States continue to recognize the Tribe's entitlement to the disputed boundary lands.
* The States of Arizona and California, the Coachella Valley Water District, and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (State parties) argued before Special Master McGarr, and repeat before this Court, that the water rights claims associated with the disputed boundary lands of the Fort Yuma Reservation are precluded by the finality rationale this Court employed in dismissing the "omitted lands" claims in Arizona II. See supra, at 4. According to the State parties, the United States could have raised a boundary lands claim for the Fort Yuma Reservation in the Arizona I proceedings based on facts known at that time, just as it did for the Fort Mojave and Colorado River Reservations, but deliberately decided not to do so, just as it did with respect to the "omitted lands." In Arizona II, this Court rejected the United States' claim for water rights for the "omitted lands," emphasizing that "certainty of rights is particularly important with respect to water rights in the Western United States" and noting "the strong interest in finality in this case." 460 U.S., at 620. Observing that the 1964 decree determined "the extent of irrigable acreage within the uncontested boundaries of the reservations," id., at 621, n. 12, the Court refused to reconsider issues "fully and fairly litigated 20 years ago," id., at 621. The Court concomitantly held that the Tribes were bound by the United States' representation of them in Arizona I. Id., at 626_627.
The Special Master rejected the State parties' preclusion argument. He brought out first the evident reason why the United States did not assert water rights claims for the Fort Yuma Reservation boundary lands in Arizona I. At that point in time, the United States was bound to follow the 1936 Margold Opinion, see supra, at 6_7, which maintained that the Tribe had no claim to those lands. "It is clear," the Master stated, "that the later Secretary of the Interior opinion arbitrarily changing the Margold decision was a circumstance not known in 1964, thus constituting an exception to the application of the rule of res adjudicata." Special Master McGarr Memorandum Opinion and Order No. 4, pp. 6_7 (Sept. 6, 1991). Characterizing the question as "close," the Master went on to conclude that "the Tribe is not precluded from asserting water rights based on boundary land claims on sic this proceeding, because although the U.S. on behalf of the Tribe failed to assert such claims in the proceeding leading to the 1964 decree, a later and then unknown circumstance bars the application of the doctrine of res judicata to this issue." Id., at 7.
The United States and the Tribe, however, urge other grounds on which to reject the State parties' argument regarding the preclusive effect of Arizona I. The United States and the Tribe maintain that the preclusion rationale the Court applied to the "omitted lands" in Arizona II is not equally applicable to the disputed boundary lands,
and that, in any event, the State parties have forfeited their preclusion defense. We agree that the State parties' preclusion defense is inadmissible at this late date, and therefore we do not reach the merits of that plea. The State parties could have raised the defense in 1979 in response to the United States' motion for a supplemental decree granting additional water rights for the Fort Yuma Reservation. The State parties did not do so then, nor did they raise the objection in 1982 when Arizona II was briefed and argued.
Unaccountably, they raised the preclusion argument for the first time in 1989, when they initiated the current round of proceedings. See Exception and Brief for the State Parties 16; Motion of the State Parties to Reopen Decree in Arizona v. California, O. T. 1989, No. 8 Orig., p. 6, n. 2. The State parties had every opportunity, and every incentive, to press their current preclusion argument at earlier stages in the litigation, yet failed to do so.
"While the technical rules of preclusion are not strictly applicable in the context of a single ongoing original action, the principles upon which these rules are founded should inform our decision." Arizona II, 460 U.S., at 619. Those principles rank res judicata an affirmative defense ordinarily lost if not timely raised. See Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 8(c). Counsel for the State parties conceded at oral argument that "no preclusion argument was made with respect to boundary lands" in the proceedings leading up to Arizona II, and that "after this Court's decision in Arizona II and after the Court's later decision in Nevada v. United States, 463 U.S. 110 (1983), the light finally dawned on the State parties that there was a valid preclusion-or res judicata argument here with respect to Fort Yuma." Tr. of Oral Arg. 46_47. We disapprove the notion that a party may wake up because a "light finally dawned," years after the first opportunity to raise a defense, and effectively raise it so long as the party was (though no fault of anyone else) in the dark until its late awakening.
The Court did note in Arizona II that in the district court proceedings the United States had asserted defenses based on "lack of standing, the absence of indispensable parties, sovereign immunity and the applicable statute of limitations," and added that "there will be time enough, if any of these grounds for dismissal are sustained and not overturned on appellate review, to determine whether the boundary issues foreclosed by such lower court action are nevertheless open for litigation in this Court." 460 U.S., at 638 (emphasis added). This passage, however, is most sensibly read to convey that the defenses just mentioned-standing, indispensable parties, sovereign immunity, and the statute of limitations-would not necessarily affect renewed litigation in this Court. The passage contains no acknowledgment, express or implied, of a lurking preclusion issue stemming from our Arizona I disposition.
The State parties themselves stipulated to the terms of the supplemental decree we entered in 1979. They also appear to have litigated the Arizona II proceedings on the understanding that the boundary disputes should be resolved on the merits. See Arizona II, 460 U.S., at 634 ("The State parties argued _ that the boundary controversies were ripe for judicial review, and they urged the Special Master to receive evidence, hear legal arguments, and resolve each of the boundary disputes, but only for the limited purpose of establishing additional Indian water rights, if any."); Report of Special Master Tuttle, O. T. 1981, No. 8 Orig., p. 57 (describing the State parties' contention "that the boundaries of all five Reservations have not been finally determined and that I should make a de novo determination of the boundaries for recommendation to the Court"). As late as 1988, the State parties asked the Court to appoint a new Special Master and direct him "to conclude his review of the boundary issues as expeditiously as possible and to submit a recommended decision to the Court." Brief for Petitioners in California v. United States, O. T. 1987, No. 87_1165, p. 49.
The State parties also assert that the instant water rights claims are precluded by the 1983 consent judgment in the Claims Court proceeding, Docket No. 320. Special Master McGarr agreed, noting the consent judgment's declaration that the Tribe would "be barred thereby from asserting any further rights, claims or demands against the defendant and any future action encompassed on docket no. 320." See Special Master McGarr Memorandum Opinion and Order No. 4, pp. 9_10 (Sept. 6, 1991). On reconsideration, the Special Master provided a fuller account of his recommendation. The settlement, he concluded, had extinguished the Tribe's claim to title in the disputed boundary lands, vesting that title in the United States against all the world: "The only viable basis for a damage or trespass claim in Docket No. 320 was that the 1893 taking was illegal and that title therefore remained with the Tribe. When the Tribe accepted money in settlement of this claim, it relinquished its claim to title." Id., No. 7, p. 5 (May 5, 1992). See also id., No. 13, p. 3 (Apr. 13, 1993) ("The relinquishment of all future claims regarding the subject matter of Docket No. 320 in exchange for a sum of money extinguished the Tribe's title in the subject lands _ ."). Because the settlement extinguished the Tribe's title to the disputed boundary lands, the Master reasoned, the United States and the Tribe cannot now seek additional water rights based on the Tribe's purported beneficial ownership of those lands.
Under standard preclusion doctrine, the Master's recommendation cannot be sustained. As already noted, the express terms of the consent judgment in Docket No. 320 barred the Tribe and the United States from asserting against each other any claim or defense they raised or could have raised in that action. See supra, at 10. As between the parties to Docket No. 320, then, the settlement indeed had, and was intended to have, claim-preclusive effect-a matter the United States and the Tribe readily concede. Exception and Brief for the United States 36; Exception and Brief for the Quechan Indian Tribe 20. But settlements ordinarily occasion no issue preclusion (sometimes called collateral estoppel), unless it is clear, as it is not here, that the parties intend their agreement to have such an effect. "In most circumstances, it is recognized that consent agreements ordinarily are intended to preclude any further litigation on the claim presented but are not intended to preclude further litigation on any of the issues presented. Thus consent judgments ordinarily support claim preclusion but not issue preclusion." 18 C. Wright, A. Miller, & E. Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure §4443, p. 384_385 (1981). This differentiation is grounded in basic res judicata doctrine. It is the general rule that issue preclusion attaches only "when an issue of fact or law is actually litigated and determined by a valid and final judgment, and the determination is essential to the judgment." Restatement (Second) of Judgments §27, p. 250 (1982). "In the case of a judgment entered by confession, consent, or default, none of the issues is actually litigated. Therefore, the rule of this Section describing issue preclusion's domain does not apply with respect to any issue in a subsequent action." Id., comment e, p. 257.
The State parties, perhaps recognizing the infirmity of their argument as a matter of standard preclusion doctrine, assert that common-law principles of issue preclusion do not apply in the special context of Indian land claims. Instead, they argue, §22 of the Indian Claims Commission Act created a special regime of "statutory preclusion."
According to the State parties, the payment of a Commission judgment for claims to aboriginal or trust lands automatically and universally extinguishes title to the Indian lands upon which the claim is based and creates a statutory bar to further assertion of claims against either the United States or third parties based on the extinguished title. The State parties point to several decisions of the Ninth Circuit in support of this contention. See Reply Brief for State Parties 17 (citing United States v. Pend Oreille Pub. Util. Dist. No. 1, 926 F.2d 1502 (CA9 1991)); id., at 15 (citing United States v. Dann, 873 F.2d 1189 (CA9 1989)); id., at 11 (citing United States v. Gemmill, 535 F.2d 1145 (CA9 1976)).
The Master has also recommended that the Court approve the parties' proposed settlement of the dispute respecting the Colorado River Indian Reservation. The claim to additional water for that reservation stems principally from a dispute over whether the reservation boundary is the ambulatory west bank of the Colorado River or a fixed line representing a past location of the River. See Arizona II, 460 U.S., at 631. The parties agreed to resolve the matter through an accord that (1) awards the Tribes the lesser of an additional 2,100 acre-feet of water or enough water to irrigate 315 acres; (2) precludes the United States or the Tribe from seeking additional reserved water rights from the Colorado River for lands in California; (3) embodies the parties' intent not to adjudicate in these proceedings the correct location of the disputed boundary; (4) preserves the competing claims of the parties to title to or jurisdiction over the bed of the Colorado River within the reservation; and (5) provides that the agreement will become effective only if the Master and the Court approve the settlement. See McGarr Report 9_10. The Master expressed concern that the settlement does not resolve the location of the disputed boundary, but recognized that it did achieve the ultimate aim of determining water rights associated with the disputed boundary lands. Id., at 10_12, 13_14. We again accept the Master's recommendation and approve the proposed settlement.
(4) The Colorado River Indian Reservation in annual quantities not to exceed (i) 719,248 acre-feet of diversions from the mainstream or (ii) the quantity of mainstream water necessary to supply the consumptive use required for irrigation of 107,903 acres and for the satisfaction of related uses, whichever of (i) or (ii) is less, with priority dates of March 3, 1865, for lands reserved by the Act of March 3, 1865 (
13 Stat. 541, 559); November 22, 1873, for lands reserved by the Executive Order of said date; November 16, 1874, for lands reserved by the Executive Order of said date, except as later modified; May 15, 1876, for lands reserved by the Executive Order of said date; November 22, 1915, for lands reserved by the Executive Order of said date.
Now that the question is squarely before us, I would hold that the United States' claim for additional water rights is barred by the principles of res judicata. Res judicata not only bars relitigation of claims previously litigated, but also precludes claims that could have been brought in earlier proceedings. Under the doctrine of res judicata, "when a final judgment has been entered on the merits of a case, `it is a finality as to the claim or demand in controversy, concluding parties and those in privity with them, not only as to every matter which was offered and received to sustain or defeat the claim or demand, but as to any other admissible matter which might have been offered for that purpose." Nevada v. United States, 463 U.S. 110, 129_130 (1983) (quoting Cromwell v. County of Sac, 94 U.S. 351, 352 (1877)).
This reasoning is equally applicable to the United States and the Tribe's claim for additional water for the disputed boundary lands. Even though the exact claim was not actually litigated in Arizona v. California, 373 U.S. 546 (1963) (Arizona I), the United States could have raised the boundary claim and failed to do so. Indeed, in the proceedings before Special Master Rifkind, the counsel for the United States affirmatively represented that "the testimony . . . as reflected by these maps and by the other testimony will define the maximum claim which the United States is asserting in this case." Earlier in the proceedings, the Master explicitly warned the United States about the preclusive effect of failing to assert potential claims: "In an action or a decree quieting title, you cut out all claims not asserted. . . . I just want you to be aware of the fact that the mere fact that it has not been asserted does not mean that you may not lose it . . . ." Exception by State Parties to Report of Special Master and Supporting Brief 8_9 (colloquy between counsel for the United States and the Special Master). Thus, under the general principles of res judicata, the United States would clearly be barred from now asserting the claim for additional water rights.
Master McGarr concluded that the United States' claim was not precluded because it fell within an exception to the bar of res judicata. Wisely abandoning the Master's reasoning, the United States instead defends the Master's ruling on the ground that these claims "are not precluded, under basic principles of res judicata, because they were not decided, and could not have been decided, in the prior proceedings." Reply Brief for United States in Response to Exception of the State Parties 21. But this argument fares no better.
The Act conferred exclusive jurisdiction on the Commission to resolve Indian claims solely by the payment of compensation. Section 2 of the Act gave the Commission jurisdiction over, among other things, claims alleging that agreements between a tribe and the United States were vitiated by fraud, duress, or unconscionable consideration, 25 U.S.C. 70a(3) (1976 ed.), claims arising from the unlawful taking of Indian lands by the United States, §70a(4), and claims based upon fair and honorable dealings not recognized by law or equity, §70a(5). The Commission's "[f]inal determinations," §70r, were subject to review by the Court of Claims, §70s(b), and, if upheld, were submitted to Congress for payment, §70u. Section 15 authorized the Attorney General to represent the United States before the Commission and, "with the approval of the Commission, to compromise any claim presented to the Commission." 25 U.S.C. 70n (1976 ed.). The Act provided that such compromises "shall be submitted by the Commission to the Congress as a part of its report as provided in section 70t of this title in the same manner as final determinations of the Commission, and shall be subject to the provisions of section 70u of this title." Ibid. Section 22(a) of the Act provided that "[t]he payment of any claim, after its determination in accordance with this chapter, shall be a full discharge of the United States of all claims and demands touching any of the matters involved in the controversy." 25 U.S.C. 70u(a) (1976 ed.). Pursuant to statute, §70v, the Commission ceased its operations in 1978 and transferred its remaining cases to the Court of Claims.
Section 22 provided: "(a) When the report of the Commission determining any claimant to be entitled to recover has been filed with Congress, such report shall have the effect of a final judgment of the Court of Claims, and there is authorized to be appropriated such sums as are necessary to pay the final determination of the Commission. "The payment of any claim, after its determination in accordance with this chapter, shall be a full discharge of the United States of all claims and demands touching any of the matters involved in the controversy. "(b) A final determination against a claimant made and reported in accordance with this chapter shall forever bar any further claim or demand against the United States arising out of the matter involved in the controversy." 25 U.S.C. 70u (1976 ed.).