Opinion ID: 163863
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Other Equitable Factors

Text: 50 Plaintiffs' final challenge to the dismissal of their judgment-fund claims is that in making its Rule 19(b) determination in equity and good conscience, the district court should have considered factors other than those specifically listed in Rule 19(b). See Wichita & Affiliated Tribes of Oklahoma, 788 F.2d at 774. The flaw in this challenge is that the additional factors proposed by Plaintiffs are merely recharacterizations of factors already considered. First, Plaintiffs claim that [o]nce the district court determined that the BIA had deliberately evaded Congressional intent on the basis of racial animus, the BIA's arguments for dismissal lose any remaining force ... [and] are exposed, not as legitimate Agency positions or policy arguments, but as an effort to avoid judicial scrutiny of its unlawful and inequitable conduct. Aplt. Br. at 28 (internal citation omitted). We question Plaintiffs' description of the district court's opinion. But in any event, this argument amounts to no more than a restatement of Plaintiffs' argument with respect to the legitimacy of the Tribe's interests, an argument that we have rejected because it goes to the substantive merits of the litigation. 51 Next, Plaintiffs argue that the abuses long suffered by the Estelusti at the hands of the Tribe and the BIA favor allowing them the opportunity to resolve their claims, even if the district court believed that its rulings would be ultimately ineffective against the Tribe, or that the BIA would be placed in a difficult position. Id. In essence, this is a reassertion of the argument that Plaintiffs should be afforded this forum because their interests outweigh the countervailing interests of the Tribe, Defendants, and the courts. This argument, however, has also been rejected. 52 In sum, the district court did not abuse its discretion in determining that Plaintiffs' judgment-fund claims could not, in equity and good conscience, proceed in the absence of the Tribe.