Opinion ID: 5141755
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Earlier Litigation

Text: Two earlier lawsuits are relevant to this one. First is the Grondal state court litigation between Evans and some of the RV owners who had purchased regular or expanded memberships at his park. By 2001, the Mill Bay RV Park was losing money fast, and Evans notified RV owners who had purchased either a regular membership or an expanded membership that he would be closing the park. Some of those members—Paul Grondal and the Mill Bay Members Association, Inc. (“Mill Bay”)—sued in Washington state 3 Evans also used his company “Chief Evans, Inc.” to conduct business. 4 Mill Bay’s motion to supplement the record dated December 16, 2020, is GRANTED. GRONDAL V. UNITED STATES 13 court to prevent the park closure. 5 Evans died during the pendency of the litigation, at which point much of his assets were distributed by will to his company Wapato Heritage, including his rights under the Master Lease. The personal representative for Evans’ estate requested mediation of the Grondal state litigation. At mediation, the parties settled and executed the 2004 Settlement Agreement, ultimately deciding that the RV park would not be closed. The BIA was not named a party to the litigation and did not intervene as a party to the action; the BIA attended the mediation at the request of the parties but did not participate. Under the terms of the 2004 Settlement Agreement, Mill Bay and Wapato Heritage agreed that Mill Bay would have the right, subject to compliance with the Master Lease, to continued use of the Mill Bay RV Park through 2034. But it turned out that the Master Lease would not last near that long. The second lawsuit was a federal court case concerning the Master Lease, which eventually reached this Court. Back in 1985, and shortly after signing the Master Lease, Evans had sent a letter to the BIA purporting to exercise the option to renew the Master Lease for 25 years through 2034. All parties to the Master Lease, as well as non-party the BIA, apparently assumed for the next twenty-two years that Evans’ letter was sufficient to exercise that option. The BIA never corrected Evans’ or Mill Bay’s understanding that the Mill Bay RV Park was properly leased through 2034, and Mill Bay made significant financial expenditures and commitments based on that understanding. 5 Mill Bay’s motion to take judicial notice dated May 21, 2021, is GRANTED. 14 GRONDAL V. UNITED STATES Upon later investigation, however, the BIA came to believe that Evans’ letter was insufficient. Recall that per the Master Lease, Evans could renew only by giving notice to both “the Lessor”—the MA-8 IAs—and to the BIA. But Evans had given notice only to the BIA, so in the BIA’s view, Evans (and Wapato Heritage, who took over as Lessee on the Master Lease after Evans’ death) had yet to successfully renew the Lease. In November 2007, the BIA sent a letter to Wapato Heritage that explained its position but noted that Wapato Heritage had two more months to notify the Lessor IAs and thereby properly exercise the renewal option. But instead of following that suggestion and so notifying the IAs, Wapato Heritage sent a response letter to the BIA disagreeing with the BIA’s interpretation of the Master Lease renewal provision. In 2008, and after the end of the period in which Wapato Heritage could correct the insufficient 1985 lease renewal, Wapato Heritage filed suit against the United States, arguing that Evans’s 1985 letter had actually or substantially complied with the renewal notice terms of the Master Lease, or alternatively, that the BIA had approved the renewal and extended the lease’s length. The district court ruled for the BIA, dismissing all of Wapato Heritage’s claims either on a motion to dismiss or on summary judgment, and confirmed the BIA’s understanding of the Master Lease: The IAs, not the BIA, were the “Lessors” and Evans had failed properly to notify the Lessor IAs of his intention to exercise the renewal option. See Wapato Heritage, LLC v. United States, No. CV-08-177, 2009 WL 3782869, at ,  (E.D. Wash. Nov. 6, 2009) (granting the BIA’s motion to dismiss for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction and motion for judgment on the pleadings); Wapato Heritage, LLC v. United States, No. CV-08-177, 2008 WL 5046447, at ,  (E.D. Wash. Nov. 21, 2008) (granting in part the BIA’s motion for summary GRONDAL V. UNITED STATES 15 judgment). We affirmed. See Wapato Heritage, LLC v. United States (Wapato Heritage I), 637 F.3d 1033, 1040 (9th Cir. 2011). The Master Lease expired in 2009, leaving unexercised the option to extend, and our 2011 decision has since become final as the Supreme Court has denied review.