Opinion ID: 6936487
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: ultra vires exception to sovereign immunity

Text: If the BLM acted ultra vires in approving Foster’s allotment (which resulted in cancellation of Alaska’s 1969 right-of-way), then sovereign immunity will not bar Alaska’s action for judicial review of the agency’s decision. Albert, 38 F.3d at 1076. According to Alaska, the BLM’s approval of Foster’s allotment application was ultra vires because (1) the BLM allocated to Foster land that was not allocable under the Allotment Act, and (2) the BLM lacked the authority to consider Foster’s application because the application was not timely filed. Neither argument was expressly raised in Albert. An action is not ultra vires simply because it “is arguably a mistake of fact or law.” United States v. Yakima Tribal Court, 806 F.2d 853, 859-60 (9th Cir.1986), cert. denied, 481 U.S. 1069, 107 S.Ct. 2461, 95 L.Ed.2d 870 (1987). An action is ultra vires, and results in a divestiture of sovereign immunity, only if “an employee of the United States acts completely outside his governmental authority.” Id. (emphasis added). 3 We hold that the ultra vires exception does not divest the United States of sovereign immunity in this case. A Allocation of Allegedly Unallocable Land Alaska’s 1969 right-of-way was granted pursuant to 23 U.S.C. § 317, which provides, in part, that federal land and materials that are necessary for the construction and maintenance of highways may be “appropriated and transferred to the State highway department.” 23 U.S.C. § 317(b). Alaska infers from this language that the land in question was “appropriated” to it in 1969. Alaska therefore reasons that the land was no longer available for allocation to Foster when she filed her application pursuant to 43 U.S.C. § 270-1, because section 270-1 only gives the BLM the authority to issue allotments of “vacant, unappropriated and unreserved” public land. (Emphasis added.) According to Alaska, the BLM acted outside its statutory authority by approving for allotment land that had already been “appropriated.” The BLM’s reason for according Foster a right to the land, notwithstanding Alaska’s 1969 right-of-way, was the agency’s “relation-back doctrine.” Under that doctrine, an allotment applicant’s preference right to the land is deemed to relate back to the initiation of her use and occupancy. See Golden Valley Elec. Ass’n, 98 IBLA 203 (1987). As a result, Foster’s preference right was deemed to relate back to 1964. As of that date, the disputed land was, in fact, “unappropriated,” and 23 U.S.C. § 317(b) therefore does not preclude a 43 U.S.C. § 270-1 allotment. Alaska’s argument, at bottom, therefore must be a challenge to the relation-back doctrine itself. 4 We sympathize with Alaska’s position: It constructed a highway across land granted to it in 1969 — land that, according to Alaska, bore no obvious indicia of use by Foster for three months a year for berry picking — and it is now being required to compensate Foster for its use of the land because the agency has determined, based on Foster’s 1971 application, that she has a right to the land that is paramount to Alaska’s. Nevertheless, Albert compels us to reject such a challenge to the relation-back doctrine. See 38 F.3d at 1076 (approving the IBLA’s use of the relation-back doctrine as within the agency’s statutory authority). 5 B. Consideration of Foster’s Application Alaska also argues that the agency acted ultra vires by approving Foster’s allotment application, which Alaska asserts was not timely filed. It . is not clear that consideration of an untimely application would constitute ultra vires action. See Yakima Tribal Court, 806 F.2d at 860 (holding that “[a]l-though [the official] may have violated statutes and regulations regarding owner consent to right-of-way changes, those trespasses do not strip him of immunity” because his actions still were not outside his delegated power to enter reservation land and to relocate irrigation canals to serve the tribe better). Even if we assume that such action would be ultra vires, however, we cannot find that the ultra vires exception to sovereign immunity applies on the facts of this ease. Alaska has offered no substantial evidence to show that an untimely application was in fact considered in this case. Cf. Albert, 38 F.3d at 1076 & n. 7 (refusing to consider Alaska’s argument that agency acted ultra vires by cancelling the State’s highway rights-of-way because Alaska “failed to provide any evidence that agency officials exceeded their authority” by doing so). In fact, the evidence in this case is clearly sufficient, under IBLA precedent and agency policies, to demonstrate that Foster’s application was timely filed. See, e.g., State of Alaska (Mary Sanford), 131 IBLA at 125; Ouzinkie Native Corp., 83 IBLA at 228; C.R. 31, Ex. 1, at II-3 (excerpt from BLM Alaska Handbook).