Opinion ID: 692074
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Takings Claim for Compound Interest

Text: 18 As an alternative to their statutory argument for prejudgment interest, plaintiffs present a claim for compound interest on the ground that their exclusion from distributions of Hoopa Valley Reservation trust monies constituted a taking for which just compensation is required. There was no error in the Court of Federal Claims's refusal to adjudicate this claim. 19 A claimant under the Fifth Amendment must show that the United States, by some specific action, took a private property interest for public use without just compensation. See U.S. Const. amend. V. The government action upon which the takings claim is premised must be authorized, either expressly or by necessary implication, by some valid enactment of Congress. See, e.g., Langenegger v. United States, 756 F.2d 1565, 1572 (Fed.Cir.1985); Southern Cal. Fin. Corp. v. United States, 634 F.2d 521, 523, 225 Ct.Cl. 104 (1980). As discussed above, the Secretary's actions in making per capita payments only to Hoopa Valley Tribe members were unauthorized. See Short III, 719 F.2d at 1137 (characterizing the Secretary's distributions as illegal). The plaintiffs are entitled to the damages awarded by the Court of Federal Claims because the Secretary failed to operate within the framework established by Congress for the administration of reservation revenues. See Short IV, 12 Cl.Ct. at 40-41. Thus, the factual predicate of the plaintiffs' Fifth Amendment argument is contradicted by the findings of the Court of Federal Claims, with which we agree. 20 At times the plaintiffs appear to be alleging that the United States took their property interest in the timber itself by transferring their rights in the timber resources of the reservation to the Hoopa Valley Tribe and its members. Such an argument, that an interest in the land or timber itself was taken, is unavailable to the plaintiffs, until 1988, when Congress divided the Hoopa Valley Reservation into two parts. See Hoopa-Yurok Settlement Act of 1988, Pub.L. No. 100-580, codified at 25 U.S.C. Secs. 1300i to 1300i-11 (1988). (Those who waived rights in the Reservation received money.) We decline to consider this issue because there are currently three cases pending in the Court of Federal Claims in which essentially the same plaintiffs assert that Congress's disposition of undistributed Hoopa Valley Reservation funds and land as part of the Hoopa-Yurok Settlement Act constitutes a taking of property requiring just compensation. Karuk Tribe of Calif. v. United States, No. 90-3993 (Ct.Fed.Cl.); Yurok Indian Tribe v. United States, No. 92-173L (Ct.Fed.Cl.); Ammon v. United States, No. 91-1432 (Ct.Fed.Cl.). Whatever we would say here would be advisory and devoid of a record. 21