Opinion ID: 3030788
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Navajo Nation as a Necessary Party

Text: The EEOC and Peabody agree, as they did in district court, that the Navajo Nation is a necessary party under Rule 19(a)(1) because the Nation is a party to the lease with Peabody. For the sake of clarity, we explain why we also agree. Rule 19(a) is concerned with consummate rather than partial or hollow relief as to those already parties, and with precluding multiple lawsuits on the same cause of action.  Northrop Corp. v. McDonnell Douglas Corp., 705 F.2d 1030, 1043 (9th Cir. 1983) (citing Advisory Committee's Note Fed. R. Civ. P. 19 (1966)). As in Dawavendewa II, 276 F.3d at 1156, the Nation is a signatory to lease provisions that the plaintiff challenges under Title VII. The EEOC seeks declaratory, injunctive, and monetary relief. If the EEOC is victorious in its suit against Peabody, monetary damages for the charging parties can be awarded without the Nation's participation. But declar3126 atory and injunctive relief could be incomplete unless the Nation is bound by res judicata. The judgment will not bind the Navajo Nation in the sense that it will directly order the Nation to perform, or refrain from performing, certain acts. But it will preclude the Nation from bringing a collateral challenge to the judgment. If the EEOC is victorious in this suit but the Nation has not been joined, the Nation could possibly initiate further action to enforce the employment preference against Peabody, even though that preference would have been held illegal in this litigation. Peabody would then be, like the defendant in Dawavendewa II, 276 F.3d at 1156, between the proverbial rock and a hard place -- comply with the injunction prohibiting the hiring preference policy or comply with the lease requiring it. By similar logic, we have elsewhere found that tribes are necessary parties to actions that might have the result of directly undermining authority they would otherwise exercise. See Pit River Home v. United States, 30 F.3d 1088, 1092 (9th Cir. 1994) (Pit River Tribal Council was a necessary party in suit challenging its designation by the Secretary of Interior as the beneficiary of reservation property); Confederated Tribes of Chehalis Reservation v. Lujan, 928 F.2d 1496, 1497 (9th Cir. 1991) (Quinault Nation was a necessary party in suit challenging the United States' continued recognition of the Nation as sole governing authority of the Quinault Indian Reservation). Following these cases, we conclude that the Navajo nation is a necessary party under Rule 19(a).