Opinion ID: 3064630
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: park place’s motion to confirm

Text: Having concluded that there are no grounds for vacating the award, we turn to the more difficult question of whether 4690 UNITED STATES v. PARK PLACE ASSOCIATES it may be confirmed. The government contends that it may not because the United States has not waived its sovereign immunity to confirmation in the Central District of California. Park Place argues that the same court that the United States invited to vacate the arbitration award must be able to confirm it as well. As the history of this case amply demonstrates, nothing is going to be simple, but in the end we agree with the United States. A. The Relationship Between Sovereign Immunity and Subject Matter Jurisdiction This case presents questions of both sovereign immunity and subject matter jurisdiction. There is a complex relationship between these two subjects. We have occasionally “mistakenly equate[d] sovereign immunity with lack of subject matter jurisdiction.” Powelson v. United States, 150 F.3d 1103, 1104 (9th Cir. 1998) (“Powelson II”). Although the concepts are related, sovereign immunity and subject matter jurisdiction present distinct issues. See Arford v. United States, 934 F.2d 229, 231 (9th Cir. 1991). [11] A waiver of sovereign immunity means the United States is amenable to suit in a court properly possessing jurisdiction; it does not guarantee a forum. See Alvarado v. Table Mountain Rancheria, 509 F.3d 1008, 1016 (9th Cir. 2007) (“To confer subject matter jurisdiction in an action against a sovereign, in addition to a waiver of sovereign immunity, there must be statutory authority vesting a district court with subject matter jurisdiction.”). For example, both the Suits in Admiralty Act (“SAA”), 46 U.S.C. § 741 et seq., and the Public Vessels Act (“PVA”), 46 U.S.C. § 781 et seq., waive the United States’ sovereign immunity, with the latter even explicitly providing for damages. See 46 U.S.C. §§ 30903, 31102. However neither statute contains a jurisdictionconferring provision. Instead, subject matter jurisdiction over actions arising under these Acts may be founded on 28 U.S.C. § 1333. UNITED STATES v. PARK PLACE ASSOCIATES 4691 [12] Conversely, the mere existence of a forum does not waive sovereign immunity. As we observed in Powelson II, “[a] statute may create subject matter jurisdiction yet not waive sovereign immunity.” 150 F.3d at 1105; see also Arford, 934 F.2d at 231 (holding that 28 U.S.C. § 1340 created subject matter jurisdiction, but “[did] not constitute a waiver of sovereign immunity.”). For example, 28 U.S.C. § 1331 grants district courts original jurisdiction over “all civil actions arising under the Constitution, laws or treaties of the United States,” but it does not waive sovereign immunity. See Hughes v. United States, 953 F.2d 531, 539 n.5 (9th Cir. 1992). As we have observed, “ ‘[section 1331] cannot be construed as authorizing suits of this character against the United States, else the exemption of sovereign immunity would become meaningless.’ ” Dunn & Black, P.S. v. United States, 492 F.3d 1084, 1088 n.3 (9th Cir. 2007) (quoting Geurkink Farms, Inc. v. United States, 452 F.2d 643, 644 (7th Cir. 1971)). We have occasionally treated jurisdiction and sovereign immunity as though they were the same inquiry. See, e.g., Powelson v. United States, 979 F.2d 141, 145 (9th Cir. 1992) (“Powelson I”). Any imprecision in our language may be due to the fact that the two most important waivers of sovereign immunity for damages are the FTCA, 28 U.S.C. § 2671 et seq., for torts committed by government employees acting in the scope of their employment, and the Tucker Act, 28 U.S.C. §1491, for actions sounding in contract. Both of these acts contain an independent conferral of jurisdiction. 28 U.S.C. § 1346(b)(1) (“[T]he district courts . . . shall have exclusive jurisdiction of civil actions on claims against the United States, for money damages [based on tort]”); 28 U.S.C. § 1346(a)(2) (“The district courts shall have original jurisdiction . . . of . . . [a]ny civil action against the United States [for damages sounding in contract]”); see also GREGORY C. SISK, LITIGATION WITH THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT §§ 3.02, 3.04(b), 4.02(b), 4.04(a) (4th ed. 2006). 4692 UNITED STATES v. PARK PLACE ASSOCIATES B. Sovereign Immunity and Subject Matter Jurisdiction in this Case We are going to use sovereign immunity to frame our analysis in this case. Because sovereign immunity and subject matter jurisdiction are so closely linked in suits against the government, we will inevitably address subject matter jurisdiction as well. There is some path dependence in our methodology: the theory of sovereign immunity under which a court entertains a suit for money damages against the government may limit, or perhaps even determine, the venues in which there is subject matter jurisdiction. As the party asserting a claim against the United States, Park Place has the burden of “demonstrating an unequivocal waiver of immunity.” Cunningham v. United States, 786 F.2d 1445, 1446 (9th Cir. 1986). Park Place makes four arguments in support of its claim that sovereign immunity does not bar its motion to confirm in the Central District of California: (1) the Federal Circuit’s earlier decisions in Hardie I and Hardie II held that the United States waived its sovereign immunity when it assumed ownership of LCP’s interests, and the United States thus may not contest the issue of sovereign immunity; (2) independent of the Hardie decisions, the United States specially waived its immunity by assenting to the JVA and its arbitration clause; (3) Congress waived the United States’ immunity to this action under § 702 of the Administrative Procedure Act; and (4) the United States waived its sovereign immunity to a motion to confirm when it filed its motion to vacate. We consider each argument in turn. We conclude that the Tucker Act is the only means by which the United States can be said to have waived its sovereign immunity in this case and that the district court did not have jurisdiction under the Tucker Act. UNITED STATES v. PARK PLACE ASSOCIATES 4693 1. The Hardie I and II Decisions Park Place principally relies on the decisions by the Federal Circuit in Hardie I and Hardie II to support its claim of waiver. The Federal Circuit’s decisions, to the extent applicable, govern as law of the case.11 The law of the case doctrine, which posits that “when a court decides upon a rule of law, that decision should continue to govern the same issues in subsequent stages in the same case,” Arizona v. California, 460 U.S. 605, 618 (1983), applies equally to decisions of coordinate appellate courts. See Christianson v. Colt Indus. Operating Corp., 486 U.S. 800, 816 (1988); Jeffries v. Wood, 114 F.3d 1484, 1488-89 (9th Cir. 1997) (en banc) (“Law of the case is a jurisprudential doctrine under which an appellate court does not reconsider matters resolved on a prior 11 The Central District of California characterized the binding effect of the Federal Circuit’s holding as collateral estoppel. We think, however, that the doctrine of collateral estoppel is inapplicable here, and the more appropriate doctrine is law of the case. The doctrine of collateral estoppel, or issue preclusion, provides that “once a court decides an issue of fact or law necessary to its judgment, that decision precludes relitigation of the same issue on a different cause of action between the same parties.” Kremer v. Chem. Const. Corp., 456 U.S. 461, 466 n.6 (1982). Here, neither of the Federal Circuit’s determinations meets the requirements for estoppel. “To be given preclusive effect, a judgment must be a final adjudication of the rights of the parties and must dispose of the litigation on the merits.” Media Techs. Licensing, LLC v. Upper Deck Co., 334 F.3d 1366, 1369 (Fed Cir. 2003). The Federal Circuit did not render final judgment on Park Place’s claims. In Hardie I, the Federal Circuit reversed the Court of Federal Claims’ dismissal of Park Place’s breach of contract claim against the United States for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, and remanded for further consideration on the merits. See 19 F. App’x at 903. In Hardie II, the Federal Circuit dismissed for lack of jurisdiction the United States’ appeal of an order by the Court of Federal Claims denying its motion to enjoin the arbitration proceeding in Los Angeles, California. See 367 F.3d at 1289, 1291. Although the Federal Circuit discussed and preliminarily resolved issues of sovereign immunity to suit and arbitration, it did not render a final judgment. Indeed, because the claim before us is the identical claim addressed by the Federal Circuit—pursued in an arbitration demand in Los Angeles, California, rather than continued as litigation in the Court of Federal Claims—that court’s earlier resolution cannot have constituted a final judgment. 4694 UNITED STATES v. PARK PLACE ASSOCIATES appeal.”). For a prior ruling to become law of the case as to a particular issue, that issue “must have been decided explicitly or by necessary implication in the previous disposition.” Herrington v. County of Sonoma, 12 F.3d 901, 904 (9th Cir. 1993) (internal quotation marks and alteration omitted). Park Place claims that the Federal Circuit’s decisions in Hardie I and Hardie II are law of the case and waive the sovereign immunity of the United States not only in the Court of Federal Claims but in the district courts as well. We disagree. A fair reading of those decisions reveals that the Federal Circuit’s conclusions necessarily relied upon the Tucker Act as the basis for the waiver of sovereign immunity. In Hardie I, Park Place filed suit in the Court of Federal Claims against the United States for breach of the JVA, claiming that the court had jurisdiction over the suit under the Tucker Act. The Court of Federal Claims dismissed the suit because there was no privity between Park Place and the United States and thus “no contract upon which a Tucker Act claim may lie.” 19 F. App’x at 901. The Federal Circuit reversed the decision of the Court of Federal Claims. The Federal Circuit found that there was no bright-line rule for determining privity. “Instead, . . . this court has recognized Tucker Act jurisdiction over contractbased claims where there is no literal contract between the plaintiff and the United States.” Id. at 905. The court explained that the “privity issue in this case presents a consideration typically absent” in cases before the court. Id. In the usual case, the United States enters into an arrangement with a prime contractor and a subcontractor brings suit, claiming it has stepped into the prime’s shoes. Here, the United States was not a principal to the contract. Instead, “the United States ha[d] elected to step into the shoes of the general partner of LCP. . . . The United States was not compelled to become the general partner of LCP; instead, it chose to do so.” Id. at 90506. The Federal Circuit concluded as follows: “In short, in UNITED STATES v. PARK PLACE ASSOCIATES 4695 appropriate circumstances such as these, Tucker Act jurisdiction over contract-based claims extends beyond those alleging breach of a contract to which both the plaintiff and the United States are named parties.” Id. at 906. In Hardie II, the Federal Circuit again considered sovereign immunity and jurisdiction over Park Place’s claims, this time in the arbitration context. After Hardie I, Park Place had shifted its focus from litigation to arbitration by filing an arbitration demand in Los Angeles. In Hardie II, the Federal Circuit considered an order by the Court of Federal Claims refusing to enjoin that arbitration proceeding. See 367 F.3d at 1289. The Federal Circuit rejected the United States’ position that it was not subject to binding arbitration, reasoning that it had already decided “that arbitration is a ‘contractual arrangement’ and that the United States is bound by the contractual arrangements contained within the joint venture agreement.” Id. at 1291. The Federal Circuit then concluded that the United States’ consent to arbitration was not independent of its “waiver of sovereign immunity as to the breach of contract claims,” id., and noted that it had previously ruled in Hardie I that the Court of Federal Claims “had jurisdiction under the Tucker Act to adjudicate [Park Place’s] contract claim.” Id. at 1289. Park Place relies heavily on the Federal Circuit’s declaration in Hardie I that the United States had “step[ped] into the shoes of the general partner of LCP,” and the court’s later statement in Hardie II that “the United States is subject to the arbitration clause of the joint venture agreement just as any private party would be,” 367 F.3d at 1291. When these statements are read in context, however, it is clear that the Federal Circuit was simply concerned with whether the United States was in privity of contract with Park Place. Answering that question in the affirmative, the Federal Circuit held that Park Place could bring an action under the Tucker Act on the contract. In other words, because there was a contract to which the United States was a party, Congress had waived its sover4696 UNITED STATES v. PARK PLACE ASSOCIATES eign immunity in the Tucker Act for suits on the contract brought in the Court of Federal Claims. [13] The fact that Park Place pled the Tucker Act, the Court of Federal Claims dismissed for want of jurisdiction under the Tucker Act, and the Federal Circuit framed its discussion in terms of the Tucker Act is critical to understanding Hardie I and Hardie II. The “step into the shoes” metaphor on which Park Place relies is not a free-standing principle that the United States was to be treated, literally, as a private entity. Indeed, if the Federal Circuit had in fact intended this meaning, it would have simply affirmed the Court of Federal Claims’ original decision in Hardie I, but on the ground that the Court of Federal Claims has no jurisdiction over contract disputes between private parties. Rather, the Federal Circuit used the metaphor to explain why Park Place could bring a suit sounding in contract against the United States when the United States was not a signatory to the contract. Park Place’s theory of the Federal Circuit’s decisions in Hardie I and Hardie II also makes little sense for another, related reason. To establish the United States’ potential liability under the JVA, the Federal Circuit needed only to find that the United States was in privity of contract with LCP, since the Tucker Act straightforwardly waived the United States’ sovereign immunity if privity were found to exist. Under Park Place’s theory, however, the Federal Circuit did not simply decide that the United States was in privity of contract with Park Place and hence that Park Place could maintain an action under the Tucker Act in the Court of Federal Claims. Rather, Park Place would have us believe that, without citing any statutory authority besides the Tucker Act, the Federal Circuit broadly held the United States’ sovereign immunity waived in the district courts as well, even though such a holding was in no sense necessary to its resolution of the case before it. We may not treat sovereign immunity so cavalierly; certainly, the Federal Circuit did not. UNITED STATES v. PARK PLACE ASSOCIATES 4697 [14] For the same reasons the Federal Circuit found that the Tucker Act was a proper source of jurisdiction for Park Place’s claims in the Court of Federal Claims, it cannot be the basis for jurisdiction in the Central District of California. The Court of Federal Claims possesses exclusive jurisdiction of claims arising under the Tucker Act in excess of $10,000, see 28 U.S.C. § 1491(a)(1); Wilkins v. United States, 279 F.3d 782, 785 (9th Cir. 2002), and Park Place’s contract claims were properly before that court.12 The Tucker Act supplies both a basis for the exercise of subject matter jurisdiction and a concomitant waiver of sovereign immunity in the Court of Federal Claims. This is a package deal—the waiver of sovereign immunity is coextensive with the jurisdiction the statute confers. The Tucker Act thus neither waives sovereign immunity for suit in, nor confers jurisdiction on, the Central District of California. A separate provision, the so-called Little Tucker Act, confers concurrent jurisdiction in the district courts for certain contract claims against the United States, but the Little Tucker Act’s jurisdictional grant is limited to claims for money damages “not exceeding $10,000 in amount.” See 28 U.S.C. § 1346(a)(2). Parties may waive their right to receive more 12 Although we are tempted to state, as we have on occasion, that the Court of Federal Claims has exclusive jurisdiction over contract claims against the United States, see Skokomish Indian Tribe v. United States, 410 F.3d 506, 511 (9th Cir. 2005) (en banc); M-S-R Pub. Power Agency v. Bonneville Power Admin., 297 F.3d 833, 840 (9th Cir. 2002); Wilkins v. United States, 279 F.3d 782, 785 (9th Cir. 2002), the Supreme Court has explained that the Court of Federal Claims does not possess “exclusive jurisdiction of Tucker Act claims for more than $10,000 . . . . Rather, that court’s jurisdiction is ‘exclusive’ only to the extent Congress has not granted any other court authority to hear the claims that may be decided by the [Court of Federal Claims].” Bowen v. Massachusetts, 487 U.S. 879, 910 n.48 (1988). We think it is more precise to state that the Tucker Act exclusively grants jurisdiction to the Court of Federal Claims, but that court’s jurisdiction is concurrent to the extent that, in another act, Congress has both waived sovereign immunity over a contract claim and created jurisdiction in another court. 4698 UNITED STATES v. PARK PLACE ASSOCIATES than $10,000 in order to satisfy the Little Tucker Act and obtain jurisdiction in the district court. See Marceau v. Blackfeet Hous. Auth., 455 F.3d 974, 986 (9th Cir. 2006), readopted on reh’g, 540 F.3d 916, 929 (9th Cir. 2008); United States v. Johnson, 153 F.2d 846, 848 (9th Cir. 1946). The Little Tucker Act, however, cannot supply the proper basis for the district court’s jurisdiction—as Park Place acknowledges— because Park Place has not waived its claims in excess of $10,000. See 28 U.S.C. § 1346(a)(2). [15] Thus, after Hardie I and Hardie II, the United States may have waived its sovereign immunity to the arbitration under the JVA, but the basis for that waiver, the Tucker Act, conditions its waiver on jurisdiction to the Court of Federal Claims. Or, to put it differently, the Tucker Act has not waived the sovereign immunity of the United States to suit in the Central District of California, and accordingly, to the extent Park Place relies on the Tucker Act for its waiver of sovereign immunity, that court lacked authority to confirm the arbitration award. 2. The JVA as a Special Waiver Park Place alternatively contends that the United States specially waived its sovereign immunity to confirmation of the arbitration award by entering into the JVA. The district court accepted this alternate theory. The court observed that the JVA provides that disputes arising thereunder “shall be determined and settled by arbitration . . . pursuant to the rules of the [AAA]” and that any arbitration award could be entered “in any court of competent jurisdiction in the State of California.” The district court found support for its position in C & L Enterprises, Inc. v. Citizen Band Potawatomi Indian Tribe of Oklahoma, 532 U.S. 411 (2001), but that decision has nothing to do with either the United States or the Tucker Act. In C&L, a private party contracted with an Indian tribe, and the parties UNITED STATES v. PARK PLACE ASSOCIATES 4699 contractually agreed to arbitrate any disputes arising thereunder. See id. at 414-16. The Supreme Court noted that the tribe had sovereign immunity—“even for breach of contract involving off-reservation commercial conduct—unless Congress has authorized the suit or the tribe has waived its immunity.” Id. at 414 (internal quotation marks omitted). The Court held that the tribe had waived that immunity “by the clear import of the arbitration clause,” and was therefore “amenable to a state-court suit to enforce an arbitral award.” Id. [16] Although C & L shares some facts with the present case—both involve an arbitration award against an otherwisesovereign entity—it is inapposite. The issue in C & L was whether the Indian tribe had waived its sovereign immunity to suit based on contract. We need not consider this question here insofar as the issue relates to contract: the Tucker Act waives the sovereign immunity of the United States for such suits, and the Federal Circuit has determined that the United States is a party to the contract here, the JVA. To the extent Park Place seeks to enforce the JVA, the United States is thus subject to suit under the Tucker Act. The relevant question is where such a suit could be brought. Congress has specified that for suits in excess of $10,000, jurisdiction is only proper in the Court of Federal Claims.13 We therefore cannot accept 13 We leave for another day interesting questions regarding the scope of the government’s authority to abrogate sovereign immunity by contract in situations and fora not covered by the Tucker Act. For purposes of this case, it suffices to note two related points. First, although we accept the Federal Circuit’s conclusion that the United States is bound by the arbitration clause for purposes of the Tucker Act, there is no evidence that the United States has waived its sovereign immunity outside the confines of that Act. Any such waiver must be unequivocal, see Dep’t of Energy v. Ohio, 503 U.S. 607, 615 (1992), and the United States was not a party to the original JVA. Park Place has not pointed us to any other law or agreement that waives the sovereign immunity of the United States for contracts or arbitrations in this case. Second, the Attorney General has charge of litigation in which the United States is an interested party. See 28 U.S.C. §§ 516, 519. As part of 4700 UNITED STATES v. PARK PLACE ASSOCIATES Park Place’s theory that the JVA constitutes a waiver to confirmation in the Central District of California.14 3. The APA Waiver [17] Alternatively, Park Place asserts that Congress waived the United States’ immunity to confirmation through the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 702.15 Section 702 provides as follows: his authority to direct litigation, the Attorney General may compromise claims by settlement or arbitration. See Constitutional Limitations on Federal Government Participation in Binding Arbitration, 19 U.S. Op. Off. Legal Counsel 208, 209 & n.3 (1995). The government may expressly enter into binding arbitration “assuming the availability of authority to effect any remedy that might result from the arbitration.” Id. at 232 & n.4. However, although there are procedures by which the Attorney General may consent to binding arbitration on behalf of the United States, those procedures have plainly not been followed here. See Developing Guidance for Binding Arbitration: A Handbook for Federal Agencies, 65 Fed. Reg. 50,005 (Aug. 16, 2000). Thus, even assuming his authority to do so, we cannot see that the Attorney General has somehow consented to confirmation in the Central District of California simply because the United States assumed LCP’s position in the JVA. 14 Section 5.03 of the JVA not only provides for binding arbitration, but it specifies that the arbitration shall be conducted in Los Angeles and that judgment on any award “may be entered thereon in any court of competent jurisdiction in the State of California.” The forum-selection clause— agreed to by Park Place and LCP before the United States was deemed a party to the contract—is, at best, consent to personal jurisdiction and venue. See Dow Chem. Co. v. Calderon, 422 F.3d 827, 831 (9th Cir. 2005). The clause cannot confer subject matter jurisdiction on California courts, federal or state. 15 Section 702 waives sovereign immunity; however, it does not confer federal jurisdiction. See, e.g., Califano v. Sanders, 430 U.S. 99, 107 (1977) (“[T]he APA does not afford an implied grant of subject-matter jurisdiction permitting federal judicial review of agency action.”); Tucson Airport Auth. v. Gen. Dynamics Corp., 136 F.3d 641, 645 (9th Cir. 1998) (“It is beyond question . . . that the APA does not provide an independent basis for subject matter jurisdiction in the district courts.”); Presbyterian Church v. United States, 870 F.2d 518, 524 (9th Cir. 1989); S. Delta Water Agency v. United States, 767 F.2d 531, 535 (9th Cir. 1985) (“Congress’s waiver of sovereign immunity [in 5 U.S.C. § 702] does not by itself confer jurisdiction.”). UNITED STATES v. PARK PLACE ASSOCIATES 4701 A person suffering legal wrong because of agency action, or adversely affected or aggrieved by agency action within the meaning of a relevant statute, is entitled to judicial review thereof. An action in a court of the United States seeking relief other than money damages and stating a claim that an agency or an officer or employee thereof acted or failed to act in an official capacity or under color of legal authority shall not be dismissed nor relief therein be denied on the ground that it is against the United States . . . . 5 U.S.C. § 702. In order for the APA’s waiver to apply to Park Place’s motion to confirm, three conditions must all be met: (1) Park Place’s claim must not seek “money damages”; (2) an adequate remedy for its claims must not be available elsewhere; and (3) Park Place’s claims must not seek relief expressly or impliedly forbidden by another statute. Tucson Airport Auth. v. Gen. Dynamics Corp., 136 F.3d 641, 645 (9th Cir. 1998). In this case, Park Place plainly cannot meet either the first or third conditions for § 702 waiver. With regard to the first condition, in Bowen v. Massachusetts, 487 U.S. 879 (1988), the Supreme Court cautioned that “[t]he fact that a judicial remedy may require one party to pay money to another is not a sufficient reason to characterize the relief as ‘money damages.’ ” Id. at 893. The Bowen Court further explained this point as follows: Our cases have long recognized the distinction between an action at law for damages—which are intended to provide a victim with monetary compensation for an injury to his person, property, or reputation—and an equitable action for specific relief—which may include an order providing for the reinstatement of an employee with backpay, or for the recovery of specific property or monies, eject4702 UNITED STATES v. PARK PLACE ASSOCIATES ment from land, or injunction either directing or restraining the defendant officer’s actions. Id. (internal quotation marks, emphasis, and citation omitted). The Court continued on, explaining that “money damages . . . normally refers to a sum of money used as compensatory relief” and that “[d]amages are given . . . to substitute for a suffered loss, whereas specific remedies are not substitute remedies at all, but attempt to give the plaintiff the very thing to which he was entitled.” Id. at 895 (internal quotation marks and emphasis omitted). [18] The issue presented by Park Place’s motion to confirm then, is this: Is the $93,612,892 awarded by the arbitration panel specific relief, the very thing to which Park Place was entitled under the JVA; or is it damages, a substitute remedy compensating Park Place for losses suffered as a result of the alleged breaching conduct of the United States? We think the answer is clearly the latter. Park Place’s arbitration demand was based upon its claims before the Court of Federal Claims and the arbitration panel justified its decision by reasoning that “[a]s a result of the [United States’] breaching conduct, [Park Place] suffered, and continue[s] to suffer, significant diminution of [its] partnership distributions.” The arbitration award is “relief that substitutes for that which ought to have been done” in that it compensates Park Place for the United States’ mismanagement of the Club during its eight-year management period, as found by the arbitration panel. Resisting this conclusion, Park Place points out that the Bowen Court noted that specific relief can encompass “the recovery of specific property or monies,” 487 U.S. at 893 (emphasis in original), and argues that it simply seeks the specific sum of money set forth in the arbitration panel’s decision and authorized by the JVA. This argument is unavailing. The entire point of specific relief is that it is relief that the plaintiff would be owed even if the defendant had never engaged in wrongful conduct. This is why the Supreme Court contrasted UNITED STATES v. PARK PLACE ASSOCIATES 4703 specific relief with compensatory relief, or relief that substitutes for that which ought to have been done. The Bowen Court did acknowledge that specific relief can encompass money, but the examples the Court cited—such as a contract to lend money or a promise to pay a money bonus under a royalty contract, see 487 U.S. at 895—further illustrate that Park Place’s argument is untenable. The JVA was not a contract for the payment of money. What Park Place was entitled to under the contract was a managing partner that did not grossly mismanage its business. The arbitration award was compensation, or a substitute, for the United States’ alleged failure to meet that standard. Accordingly, Park Place cannot meet the first requirement for a waiver of sovereign immunity under § 702. The conclusion that Park Place seeks money damages by itself requires us to reject its contention that Congress waived the United States’ immunity to confirmation through the APA. However, even if confirmation of the arbitration award could be framed as involving something other than an award of money damages, this action would nonetheless be barred by the Tucker Act. Section 702 makes clear that it does not confer “authority to grant relief if any other statute that grants consent to suit expressly or impliedly forbids the relief which is sought.” The Tucker Act provides that “[t]he United States Court of Federal Claims shall have jurisdiction to render judgment upon any claim against the United States founded . . . upon any express or implied contract with the United States.” 28 U.S.C. § 1491(a)(1). Accordingly, we have consistently held that, while the Tucker Act precludes interpreting the APA as a waiver of sovereign immunity for contract-based claims in the district courts, the Tucker Act does not strip the district courts of jurisdiction in cases that “rest[ ] at bottom on statutory rights.” N. Side Lumber Co. v. Block, 753 F.2d 1482, 1485 (9th Cir. 1985). Whether a claim is contractually or statutorily based depends upon the “source of the rights upon 4704 UNITED STATES v. PARK PLACE ASSOCIATES which the plaintiff bases its claim.” N. Star Alaska v. United States, 14 F.3d 36, 37 (9th Cir. 1994) (internal quotation marks omitted). [19] Based on these established principles, we conclude that Park Place’s action to confirm is a contract-based claim impliedly barred by the Tucker Act. As the Court of Federal Claims correctly noted, “[e]ntering judgment on an arbitration award is tantamount to granting a request for specific performance of the JVA.” See also Lafarge Conseils Et Etudes, S.A. v. Kaiser Cement & Gypsum Corp., 791 F.2d 1334, 1340 (9th Cir. 1986) (noting that motions to vacate and confirm arbitration awards arise directly out of contract). We have no doubt that a suit seeking specific performance of a contract is a “contractually” based claim for purposes of the APA and the Tucker Act. Park Place nonetheless suggests that the motion to confirm is based on its statutory rights under 9 U.S.C. § 9, which provides, inter alia, that “any party to the arbitration may apply to the court so specified for an order confirming the award, and thereupon the court must grant such an order unless the award is vacated, modified, or corrected as prescribed in sections 10 and 11 of this title.” We disagree. The Supreme Court has made very clear that the FAA was enacted in order to facilitate judicial enforcement of contracts and that an action under the FAA is simply an action to enforce the arbitration provision of the parties’ contract. See Volt Info. Scis., Inc., 489 U.S. at 474 (the FAA was created “to overrule the judiciary’s longstanding refusal to enforce agreements to arbitrate and place such agreements upon the same footing as other contracts” (internal quotation marks and citation omitted)). The FAA “does not impose” any independent “substantive dut[ies]” upon the United States. Tucson Airport Auth., 136 F.3d at 647. Indeed, the mere existence of an arbitration award against the federal government has neither legal significance nor creates any rights in favor of Park UNITED STATES v. PARK PLACE ASSOCIATES 4705 Place absent a contractual provision binding the United States to the arbitration award. Thus, Park Place’s claim clearly does “not exist independent of the . . . [c]ontract.” Id. The fact that a statute gives us general authority to enforce contractual provisions regarding arbitration (without mentioning the United States specifically) does not mean that a plaintiff’s suit is not based solely on rights created by the contract. Indeed, we rejected an argument materially indistinguishable from the one Park Place makes here in Tucson Airport Authority. In that case, the plaintiff’s predecessor in interest modified various aircraft for the United States military under a “Modification Center Contract.” Id. at 643. The contract provided that, upon its termination, the United States would assume all obligations that the plaintiff had undertaken in good faith in connection with its work for the military. Id. The United States nonetheless refused to assume the plaintiff’s defense in four separate civil suits filed against it. Id. On appeal to this court, the plaintiff contended that the government’s refusal violated the Contract Settlement Act (“CSA”), 41 U.S.C. § 101 et seq., and hence that its claim was not contractually based. The CSA stated that war contracts “shall not be reopened, annulled, modified, set aside, or disregarded by any officer, employee, or agent of the United States,” 41 U.S.C. § 103(m), while the FAA declares that courts should confirm arbitration awards “unless the award is vacated, modified, or corrected as prescribed in sections 10 and 11 of this title.” 9 U.S.C. § 9. Thus, both statutes set forth a mechanism for the enforcement of contracts but do not create any statutory rights distinct from the terms of any contract entered into by the parties. We thus rejected the plaintiff’s claim that it merely sought to enforce “statutory” rights under the CSA: General Dynamics’s CSA claims do not exist inde- pendent of the Modification Center Contract. The CSA does not impose a substantive duty on the 4706 UNITED STATES v. PARK PLACE ASSOCIATES United States to defend these claims. That duty, if it exists, derives from the contract. Moreover, General Dynamics seeks specific performance of the con- tract. The conclusion follows that these claims are contractually-based. 136 F.3d at 647. Similarly here, the FAA does not impose a substantive duty on the United States to participate in arbitration or abide by an arbitration award. That duty, if it exists, derives from the contract. Moreover, just like the plaintiff in Tucson Airport Authority, Park Place seeks specific performance of the contract. [20] We express no opinion on whether Park Place has an adequate remedy elsewhere. Because Park Place’s motion to confirm seeks both money damages and enforcement of contractual rights, the APA’s limited waiver is inapplicable here. 4. Waiver Through Filing of the Motion to Vacate Finally, Park Place argues that the United States waived its immunity to confirmation when it moved to vacate the arbitration award. Park Place suggests that the district court had jurisdiction over the United States’ motion to vacate under 28 U.S.C. § 1345, and that its motion to confirm was so related to the motion to vacate that the district court acquired jurisdiction under either § 1345 or the supplemental jurisdiction statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1367. Neither statute will support Park Place’s claim to a waiver of sovereign immunity. [21] By its terms, § 1345 encompasses only actions “commenced by the United States.” 28 U.S.C. § 1345 (emphasis added). We have explicitly rejected the proposition that “§ 1345 [may] establish[ ] jurisdiction for a suit against the United States, by drawing its essence from a separate action previously commenced by the United States.” Fid. & Cas. Co. v. Reserve Ins. Co., 596 F.2d 914, 916 (9th Cir. 1979) (holding that even though the party could have sought to intervene UNITED STATES v. PARK PLACE ASSOCIATES 4707 in an action by the United States, it could not institute a separate action against the United States).16 In this case, the United States filed a motion to vacate the arbitration award in the Central District of California on October 8, 2004, for which 28 U.S.C. § 1345 served as the basis for jurisdiction.17 That motion followed Park Place’s motion to confirm, which it had filed on September 14, 2004, in the Court of Federal Claims.18 Because § 1345 will not support an original action by Park Place, Park Place’s own jurisdictional theory depends on the fortuity of the United States’ decision to file a motion to vacate, to which it could attach its motion to confirm. We do not think § 1345 can be used in this creative way. See Orff v. United States, 545 U.S. 596, 602-04 (2005). Moreover, even if Park Place is correct that § 1345 gave the district court jurisdiction over its motion to confirm, § 1345 plainly does not constitute a waiver of sovereign immunity. Park Place’s second jurisdictional argument is more plausible. Park Place contends that the supplemental jurisdiction statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1367, when read in conjunction with § 1345, supports the district court’s jurisdiction. Park Place reasons that because the Central District of California had jurisdiction over the United States’ motion to vacate under § 1345, it had supplemental jurisdiction over Park Place’s motion to confirm because the motions were inextricably intertwined. 16 This principle is subject to a narrow exception: “when the United States files suit it may subject itself to various compulsory and permissive counterclaims for recoupment or set-off.” Id. at 917; see also United States v. Shaw, 309 U.S. 495 (1940); United States v. Agnew, 423 F.2d 513, 514 (9th Cir. 1970) (per curiam). As Park Place concedes, its claim is not a counterclaim permitted under such an exception. 17 Although this motion was filed ninety-one days after the arbitration award on July 9, 2004, this appears to be “within three months after the award [was] filed” on July 8, 2004. 9 U.S.C. § 12. 18 The United States opposed the motion on jurisdictional grounds and asked the Court of Federal Claims to treat its opposition as a motion to vacate if the court concluded it had jurisdiction. 4708 UNITED STATES v. PARK PLACE ASSOCIATES [22] The text of § 1367 appears to support Park Place’s argument. That section provides that “the district courts shall have supplemental jurisdiction over all other claims that are so related to claims in the action within such original jurisdiction that they form part of the same case or controversy under Article III of the United States Constitution.” 28 U.S.C. § 1367(a). The Supreme Court has emphasized that “[§] 1367(a) is a broad grant of supplemental jurisdiction over other claims within the same case or controversy, as long as the action is one in which the district courts would have original jurisdiction” and cautioned against fashioning limitations on that grant without support in the statutory text. Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Allapattah Servs., Inc., 545 U.S. 546, 558-59 (2005). As Park Place observes, both the United States’ motion to vacate and its motion to confirm required the district court to pass upon the validity of the same arbitration award and the two claims thus clearly seem to share a “common nucleus of operative fact.” Bahrampour v. Lampert, 356 F.3d 969, 978 (9th Cir. 2004) (internal quotation marks omitted). [23] Having said that, we note that predicating jurisdiction on § 1367 is also not without difficulties. More specifically, and as noted above, the Tucker Act conditions the United States’ waiver of sovereign immunity over contract-based claims seeking more than $10,000 on jurisdiction in the Court of Federal Claims. Section 1367 itself makes clear that its provisions do not apply where another federal statute “expressly provide[s] otherwise.” The circuits that have considered the issue have thus rejected the argument Park Place makes here—that the exclusive jurisdiction granted to the Court of Federal Claims by the Tucker Act may be overridden by the general grant set forth in § 1367. See Dia Nav. Co., Ltd. v. Pomeroy, 34 F.3d 1255, 1267 (3d Cir. 1994); Pershing Div. of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Secs. Corp. v. United States, 22 F.3d 741, 744 (7th Cir. 1994). However, we need not definitively decide this issue because § 1367, like § 1345, does not constitute a waiver of the United States’ sovereign UNITED STATES v. PARK PLACE ASSOCIATES 4709 immunity and thus cannot support the district court’s decision to confirm the arbitration award. More broadly, we emphasize that the theory on which Park Place relies here depends entirely upon the Department of Justice’s decision to file suit in the Central District of California to vacate the arbitration award. Had the United States not filed that suit, Park Place could not credibly suggest that § 1345 or § 1367 permitted the Central District of California to confirm the arbitration award. Only Congress can waive the United States’ sovereign immunity, Dunn & Black, 492 F.3d at 1090—litigation strategy gone awry is thus generally not a sufficient condition for awarding a money judgment against the United States. Cf. OPM v. Richmond, 496 U.S. 414, 428 (1990) (“If agents of the Executive were able, by their unauthorized oral or written statements to citizens, to obligate the Treasury for the payment of funds, the control over public funds that the Clause reposes in Congress in effect could be transferred to the Executive.”). This case illustrates the wisdom of that rule. Under 9 U.S.C. § 12, a motion to vacate an arbitration award must be filed within three months. The United States filed the motion to vacate as a defensive measure, apparently reasoning that, if it did not do so quickly, it would forfeit its remaining arguments, including that Park Place had waived its right to elect arbitration. We will not permit such an understandable decision to open the public treasury in a manner that Congress has not authorized and that the government in no sense can be said to have consented to in filing the motion to vacate. We therefore reject this argument.19 19 Park Place’s assertion that confirmation follows as “the necessary and automatic consequence of deny[ing the] motion to vacate” inaccurately describes the FAA even in cases where sovereign immunity is not implicated. We recognize that the motions to vacate and to confirm are in some sense inversely related. Where an award has been vacated, it cannot be confirmed; conversely, where a party has properly applied for an order, a 4710 UNITED STATES v. PARK PLACE ASSOCIATES