Opinion ID: 3217620
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Washington’s Cross-Request

Text: Washington asserted a “cross-request” (in effect, a counterclaim) based on the United States’ construction and maintenance of barrier culverts on its own land. Washington contended that if its barrier culverts violate the Treaties, so too do the United States’ barrier culverts. Washington contended that an injunction requiring it to correct its barrier culverts, while leaving undisturbed those of the United States, imposed a disproportionate and therefore unfair burden on the State. Washington sought an injunction that would require the United States “to fix and thereafter maintain all culverts built or maintained by [the United States] . . . before the State of Washington is required to repair or remove any of its culverts.” The district court struck the cross-request and subsequently denied Washington’s motion to amend. It did so on two grounds. First, it held that Washington’s crossrequest was barred by sovereign immunity. Second, it held that Washington did not have standing to assert treaty rights belonging to the Tribes. We agree with both grounds.
The United States enjoys sovereign immunity from unconsented suits. However, when the United States files suit, consent to counterclaims seeking offset or recoupment will be inferred. United States v. Agnew, 423 F.2d 513, 514 (9th Cir. 1970). Washington contends that the injunction it seeks against the United States is “recoupment.” We disagree. 38 UNITED STATES V. WASHINGTON The Tenth Circuit has set forth three criteria that must be satisfied for a recoupment claim: To constitute a claim in recoupment, a defendant’s claim must (1) arise from the same transaction or occurrence as the plaintiff’s suit; (2) seek relief of the same kind or nature as the plaintiff’s suit; and (3) seek an amount not in excess of the plaintiff’s claim. Berrey v. Asarco Inc., 439 F.3d 636, 645 (10th Cir. 2006); see Fed. Deposit Insur. Corp. v. Hulsey, 22 F.3d 1472, 1487 (10th Cir. 1994). We adopt these criteria as our own, and make explicit that the remedy (the “amount”) sought by the United States and by the defendant in recoupment must be monetary. It is implicit in the use of the word “amount” in Berrey’s third criterion that a recoupment claim is a monetary claim. A claim for recoupment, if successful, can reduce or eliminate the amount of money that would otherwise be awarded to the plaintiff. It cannot result in an affirmative monetary judgment in favor of the party asserting the claim: “Although a counterclaim may be asserted against a sovereign by way of set off or recoupment to defeat or diminish the sovereign’s recovery, no affirmative relief may be given against a sovereign in the absence of consent.” Agnew, 423 F.2d at 514; see also United States v. U.S. Fid. & Guar. Co., 309 U.S. 506, 511 (1940) (“[A] defendant may, without statutory authority, recoup on a counterclaim an amount equal to the principal claim.”); Black’s Law Dictionary 1466 (10th ed. 2009) (“Recoupment: 1. The getting back or regaining of something, esp. expenses. 2. The withholding, for equitable reasons, of all or part of something UNITED STATES V. WASHINGTON 39 that is due. . . . 3. Reduction of a plaintiff’s damages because of a demand by the defendant arising out of the same transaction. . . . 4. The right of a defendant to have the plaintiff’s claim reduced or eliminated because of the plaintiff’s breach of contract or duty in the same transaction.”). The parties have cited no case, and we have found none, in which the term recoupment has been applied to non-monetary relief such as an injunction. Washington’s cross-request for an injunction thus does not qualify as a claim for recoupment and is barred by sovereign immunity.
Washington seeks an injunction requiring the United States to correct its barrier culverts on the ground that the United States is bound by the Treaties in the same manner and to the same degree as the State. Washington is, of course, correct that the United States is bound by the Treaties. Indian treaty rights were “intended to be continuing against the United States . . . as well as against the state[.]” Winans, 198 U.S. at 381–82. Our holding that Washington has violated the Treaties in building and maintaining its barrier culverts necessarily means that the United States has also violated the Treaties in building and maintaining its own barrier culverts. However, any violation of the Treaties by the United States violates rights held by the Tribes rather than the State. The Tribes have not sought redress against the United States in the proceeding now before us. 40 UNITED STATES V. WASHINGTON