Opinion ID: 789644
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: analysis

Text: 5 The Tribe seeks relief against the United States pursuant to the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), 28 U.S.C. § 1346. The Tribe alleges that the United States violated its obligations under the Treaty by allowing continued operations of the Project and by failing to take legal action on the Tribe's behalf or fund litigation, thereby breaching its fiduciary responsibilities to the Tribe under the Treaty. 6 These claims are not properly brought under the FTCA, which authorizes suits against the United States 7 for injury or loss of property, or personal injury or death caused by the negligent or wrongful act or omission of any employee of the Government while acting within the scope of his office or employment, under circumstances where the United States, if a private person, would be liable to the claimant in accordance with the law of the place where the act or omission occurred. 8 28 U.S.C. § 1346(b)(1) (emphasis added). 2 Tribe's claims against the United States are properly characterized not as tort claims, but as claims that the United States violated its obligations under the Treaty. The claims are thus quite different from those in cases like Berkovitz v. United States, 486 U.S. 531, 108 S.Ct. 1954, 100 L.Ed.2d 531 (1988), and Indian Towing Co. v. United States, 350 U.S. 61, 76 S.Ct. 122, 100 L.Ed. 48 (1955), on which the Tribe relies. In Berkovitz, a federal agency allegedly acted tortiously in approving the release of a polio vaccine that did not meet safety standards. In Indian Towing, the Coast Guard acted negligently in its operation of a lighthouse because it did not use due care to make certain that the light was kept in good working order, causing more than $60,000 in damages to a barge and its cargo. 350 U.S. at 69, 76 S.Ct. 122. The Tribe is not claiming the United States behaved tortiously, but rather that the United States failed to abide by its contractual obligations to the Tribe under the Treaty. 9 The Tribe's claims may best be characterized as arising under the Tucker Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1491, or its counterpart for Indian claims, the Indian Tucker Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1505. The Tucker Act gives the Court of Federal Claims exclusive jurisdiction over claims for damages exceeding $10,000 that are founded ... upon any express or implied contract with the United States. 28 U.S.C. § 1491(a)(1). The Indian Tucker Act extends the Court of Federal Claims' jurisdiction to 10 any tribe, band, or other identifiable group of American Indians residing within the territorial limits of the United States or Alaska whenever such claim is one arising under the Constitution, laws or treaties of the United States, or Executive orders of the President, or is one which otherwise would be cognizable in the Court of Federal Claims if the claimant were not an Indian tribe, band or group. 11 28 U.S.C. § 1505. 3 It is under the Tucker and Indian Tucker Acts that the federal courts have considered claims most similar to those of the Tribe. For example, in United States v. Mitchell ( Mitchell II ), 463 U.S. 206, 208, 103 S.Ct. 2961, 77 L.Ed.2d 580 (1983), an Indian tribe brought a Tucker Act cause of action in the Court of Claims (the Court of Federal Claims' predecessor) against the United States for breach of trust responsibilities that originated with a treaty, which was later codified in federal law. This is very much like our case, in which the Tribe's claims against the United States are for breach of its fiduciary obligations under the Treaty. 12 Because we lack subject matter jurisdiction over the Tribe's damages claims against the United States, but believe they might properly have been brought under the Indian Tucker Act, we exercise our discretion to transfer these claims to the Court of Federal Claims. See 28 U.S.C. § 1631 (Whenever ... an appeal, including a petition for review of administrative action, is noticed for or filed with ... a court and that court finds that there is a want of jurisdiction, the court shall, if it is in the interest of justice, transfer such action or appeal to any other such court in which the action or appeal could have been brought at the time it was filed or noticed....); Beck v. Atl. Richfield Co., 62 F.3d 1240, 1242 n. 4 (9th Cir.1995) (per curiam).
13 The Tribe also asserts the United States violated the Federal Power Act (FPA), 16 U.S.C. §§ 791a-828c, by failing to submit and include license conditions protective of the Skokomish Reservation fish and wildlife, to fully consider environmental factors before issuing a project license, and to require evidence that the City, as a license applicant, possessed sufficient water rights for the Project and complied with state and federal laws requiring fishways at dams and prohibiting impairment of navigation. The FPA, however, specifically provides: Each licensee hereunder shall be liable for all damages occasioned to the property of others by the construction, maintenance, or operation of the project works or of the works appurtenant or accessory thereto, constructed under the license, and in no event shall the United States be liable therefor.  16 U.S.C. § 803(c) (emphasis added). 14 The plain language of the FPA is clear. It differentiates between the United States and licensees, and unequivocally exempts the United States from liability. When the statutory language is clear, it trumps. Lamie v. United States Tr., 540 U.S. 526, 124 S.Ct. 1023, 1030, 157 L.Ed.2d 1024 (2004). We therefore affirm the district court's dismissal of all FPA claims against the United States. 15

16 1. A treaty between the United States and an Indian tribe is essentially a contract between two sovereign nations. Washington v. Wash. State Commercial Passenger Fishing Vessel Ass'n, 443 U.S. 658, 675, 99 S.Ct. 3055, 61 L.Ed.2d 823 (1979) ( Fishing Vessel ). Nonetheless, treaties constitute the supreme law of the land, Breard v. Greene, 523 U.S. 371, 376, 118 S.Ct. 1352, 140 L.Ed.2d 529 (1998) (per curiam), and they have occasionally been found to provide rights of action for equitable relief against non-contracting parties, see United States v. Winans, 198 U.S. 371, 377, 25 S.Ct. 662, 49 L.Ed. 1089 (1905). 17 Equitable relief, however, merely ensures compliance with a treaty; that is, it forces state governmental entities and their officers to conform their conduct to federal law. The Tribe here would have us go further and hold that it may recover monetary damages against the City and TPU for alleged treaty violations. We find no basis for doing so. 5 18 The Supreme Court has held that the Treaty of Point No Point and similar treaties are self-enforcing and thus do not require implementing legislation to form the basis of a lawsuit. See Fishing Vessel, 443 U.S. at 693 n. 33, 99 S.Ct. 3055. To make this determination, the Court looked at language common to the treaties, which stated that the treaties shall be obligatory on the contracting parties as soon as [they are] ratified by the President and Senate of the United States. Id. (emphasis added) (alteration in original) (internal quotation marks omitted); see also Treaty, art. 14. However, the City and TPU are not contracting parties to the Treaty. Nor is there anything in the language of the Treaty that would support a claim for damages against a non-contracting party. Cf. Alexander v. Sandoval, 532 U.S. 275, 286, 121 S.Ct. 1511, 149 L.Ed.2d 517 (2001) (The judicial task is to interpret the statute Congress has passed to determine whether it displays an intent to create not just a private right but also a private remedy.); Touche Ross & Co. v. Redington, 442 U.S. 560, 568, 99 S.Ct. 2479, 61 L.Ed.2d 82 (1979) ([O]ur task is limited solely to determining whether Congress intended to create the private right of action asserted.... And as with any case involving the interpretation of a statute, our analysis must begin with the language of the statute itself.). 19 The Tribe has argued that in Fishing Vessel and Puyallup Tribe v. Department of Game of Washington ( Puyallup I ), 391 U.S. 392, 88 S.Ct. 1725, 20 L.Ed.2d 689 (1968), the Supreme Court held that tribes may have a cause of action against non-contracting parties under a treaty, even in the absence of a specific treaty provision. But the Tribe misunderstands the significance of those cases. In Fishing Vessel, the Court interpreted a group of treaties, including the one at issue here, which granted Indian tribes `[t]he right of taking fish, at all usual and accustomed grounds and stations... in common with all citizens....' 443 U.S. at 674, 99 S.Ct. 3055 (quoting Treaty of Medicine Creek, Dec. 26, 1854, art. 3, 10 Stat. 1132, substantially similar to Treaty of Point No Point, art. 4). The Court held that this provision secured to the tribes the right to harvest a share of each run of anadromous fish that passed through tribal fishing areas and not merely a right to compete with non-treaty fishermen on an equal basis. Id. at 683-85, 99 S.Ct. 3055. The tribes were thus entitled to an equal measure of the harvestable portion of each run that passed through a usual and accustomed tribal fishing ground, adjusted downward if tribal needs could be satisfied by a lesser amount. Id. at 685-89, 99 S.Ct. 3055. 20 The Court then held that its order was enforceable by injunction. See id. at 692 n. 32, 99 S.Ct. 3055. This is quite different from finding a right to sue a non-contracting party for damages under a treaty — a theory the Supreme Court avoided in Fishing Vessel. 21 Puyallup I is not to the contrary. In that case, the Court held that the State of Washington — a non-party to a treaty between the Puyallup Tribe and the United States — could regulate the modes of fishing allowed as an appropriate exercise of the State's police power because the manner in which the fishing may be done and its purpose ... are not mentioned in the Treaty. 391 U.S. at 398, 88 S.Ct. 1725. The Court suggested that, even though the state could regulate in this instance, it could not pass legislation that would directly interfere with rights secured by a treaty. See id. (We would have quite a different case if the Treaty had preserved the right to fish at the `usual and accustomed places' in the `usual and accustomed' manner. ). But the Court did not hold that the Tribe had a private right of action under the Treaty for damages. In fact, the Puyallup Tribe did not bring a claim at all. It was the State of Washington that had sued the Tribe, seeking an injunction and declaratory relief that would allow the State to regulate certain fishing areas named in the Treaty. The Court did not consider whether the Tribe had a right of action even for equitable relief, let alone monetary damages going back nearly seventy-five years. 22 The Tribe gets no help from Antoine v. Washington, 420 U.S. 194, 95 S.Ct. 944, 43 L.Ed.2d 129 (1975). Antoine stands for the proposition that when a treaty has been implemented by Congress, neither an express provision precluding state qualification nor the consent of the State [is] required to subject a state to the provisions of the treaty. Id. at 205, 95 S.Ct. 944. Holding that a state is precluded from passing laws inconsistent with a treaty is quite different from saying that a non-contracting party can be sued for damages under the treaty. 23 Finally, County of Oneida v. Oneida Indian Nation, 470 U.S. 226, 105 S.Ct. 1245, 84 L.Ed.2d 169 (1985) ( County of Oneida II ), is inapposite. In that case, the Supreme Court found that the plaintiff tribes could assert a federal common law damages claim for unlawful possession of land. The Court's decision was not based on any treaty. Rather, it was based on well-established federal common law principles regarding aboriginal possessory rights in land. See id. at 235-36, 105 S.Ct. 1245. By contrast, the Tribe in our case is seeking to collect damages for violation of fishing rights reserved to it by treaty. 24 Thus, we hold that there is no basis for implying the right of action for damages that the Tribe seeks to assert. 25 2. We turn next to the Tribe's claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The Supreme Court recently held in Inyo County v. Paiute-Shoshone Indians, 538 U.S. 701, 708-12, 123 S.Ct. 1887, 155 L.Ed.2d 933 (2003), that a Tribe is not a person capable of bringing a claim under section 1983 for violation of a sovereign prerogative. The Court reasoned that qualification of a sovereign as a `person' who may maintain a particular claim for relief depends ... on the `legislative environment' in which the word appears. Id. at 711, 123 S.Ct. 1887 (quoting Georgia v. Evans, 316 U.S. 159, 161, 62 S.Ct. 972, 86 L.Ed. 1346 (1942)). To illustrate circumstances in which sovereigns may assert claims under section 1983, the Court cited Evans, in which a State, as purchaser of asphalt shipped in interstate commerce, qualified as a `person' entitled to seek redress under the Sherman Act for restraint of trade. Inyo County, 538 U.S. at 711, 123 S.Ct. 1887 (citing Evans, 316 U.S. at 160-63, 62 S.Ct. 972). It also cited Pfizer Inc. v. Government of India, 434 U.S. 308, 98 S.Ct. 584, 54 L.Ed.2d 563 (1978), which held that a foreign nation, as purchaser of antibiotics, ranked as a `person' qualified to sue pharmaceuticals manufacturers under our antitrust laws. 538 U.S. at 711, 123 S.Ct. 1887 (citing Pfizer, 434 U.S. at 309-20, 98 S.Ct. 584). 26 The Tribe here is not suing as an aggrieved purchaser, or in any other capacity resembling a private person[ ]. Id. at 712, 123 S.Ct. 1887. Rather, the Tribe is attempting to assert communal fishing rights reserved to it, as a sovereign, by a treaty it entered into with the United States. See United States v. Washington, 520 F.2d 676, 688 (9th Cir.1975) (The treaties must be viewed as agreements between independent and sovereign nations.... Each tribe bargained as an entity for rights which were to be enjoyed communally.). Recognizing that [s]ection 1983 was designed to secure private rights against government encroachment, id. at 712, 123 S.Ct. 1887, as well as the long-standing interpretive presumption that `person' does not include the sovereign, Vt. Agency of Natural Res. v. United States ex rel. Stevens, 529 U.S. 765, 780, 120 S.Ct. 1858, 146 L.Ed.2d 836 (2000), we conclude that the Tribe may not assert its treaty-based fishing rights under section 1983. 6 27 As for the individual members of the Tribe, while we have suggested that some treaty-based rights might be cognizable on behalf of a tribe's members under section 1983, see United States v. Washington, 813 F.2d 1020, 1023 (9th Cir.1987), we have noted that the hallmark for determining the scope of section 1983 coverage is whether the right asserted is one `that protects the individual against government intrusion,' Hoopa Valley Tribe v. Nevins, 881 F.2d 657, 662 (9th Cir.1989) (quoting White Mountain Apache Tribe v. Williams, 810 F.2d 844, 848 (9th Cir. 1985)). In Hoopa Valley, for instance, we held that section 1983 could not be used to enforce a collective right to tribal self-government. 28 The Tribe's treaty-based rights do not give rise to individual actions cognizable under section 1983. As we stated in Settler v. Lameer, 507 F.2d 231, 237 (9th Cir.1974), with regard to fishing rights similar to those that the Tribe's members assert here, the fishing rights reserved in [the relevant treaty] are communal rights of the Tribe, even though the individual members benefit from those rights. See also Whitefoot v. United States, 155 Ct.Cl. 127, 293 F.2d 658, 663 (Ct.Cl.1961) (noting that interests in ... fisheries are communal, subject to tribal regulation). 7 Because the Tribe's members seek to vindicate communal, rather than individual rights, they do not have cognizable section 1983 claims against the City or TPU. 8 29 We therefore affirm the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the City and TPU. The Tribe's claims cannot be asserted under the Treaty or under section 1983.
30 The Tribe also sues on the theory that the City has violated water rights that were impliedly reserved to the Tribe when it entered into the Treaty with the United States. 31 In Winters v. United States, 207 U.S. 564, 28 S.Ct. 207, 52 L.Ed. 340 (1908), the Supreme Court held that federal reservations of public land can sometimes carry implied property rights in appurtenant waters. While many of the contours of what has come to be called the `implied-reservation-of-water doctrine' remain unspecified, the Court has repeatedly emphasized that [the United States] reserved `only that amount of water necessary to fulfill the purpose of the reservation, no more.' United States v. New Mexico, 438 U.S. 696, 700, 98 S.Ct. 3012, 57 L.Ed.2d 1052 (1978) (quoting Cappaert v. United States, 426 U.S. 128, 141, 96 S.Ct. 2062, 48 L.Ed.2d 523 (1976)). The Court has found implied water rights stemming from a reservation of public land only where without the water the purposes of the reservation would be entirely defeated. Id. But [w]here water is only valuable for a secondary use of the reservation, ... there arises the contrary inference that [the United States] intended, consistent with its other views, that the [reservation] would acquire water in the same manner as any other public or private appropriator. Id. at 702, 98 S.Ct. 3012. 32 The district court concluded that the water diverted by the City was not necessary for any primary purpose of the reservation. The Tribe argues that this was error, contending that the City has infringed upon its implied water rights in the Skokomish River by impeding its ability to fish. We agree with the district court that the Tribe cannot survive summary judgment with its claim that fishing was a primary purpose of the reservation. 33 The Tribe directs us to submitted declarations from a historian and a cultural anthropologist, but these declarations only suggest that fishing was important to the Tribe, and that the United States intended to ensure the Tribe was not excluded from its fisheries. Demonstrating that the United States intended for the Tribe to continue fishing on the reservation is not the same as showing that fishing was a primary purpose of the reservation. Cf. id. at 716, 98 S.Ct. 3012 (While Congress intended the national forests to be put to a variety of uses, including stockwatering, not inconsistent with the two principal purposes of the forests, stockwatering was not itself a direct purpose of reserving the land.); id. at 716-17, 98 S.Ct. 3012 (Congress, of course, did intend to secure favorable water flows, and one of the uses to which the enhanced water supply was intended to be placed was probably stockwatering. But Congress intended the water supply from the Rio Mimbres to be allocated among private appropriators under state law.). 34 Nor does the Treaty language help the Tribe. The Treaty merely provides that the Tribe shall have [t]he right of taking fish ... in common with all citizens of the United States. Treaty, art. 4. This language distinguishes our case from United States v. Adair, 723 F.2d 1394 (9th Cir.1983), where we based our finding of implied water rights in part on treaty language expressly provid[ing] that the[plaintiff Indian Tribe] will have exclusive on-reservation fishing and gathering rights. See id. at 1409 (emphasis added). The Treaty language in this case cannot make up for the inadequacy of the evidence the Tribe has presented. 35 We thus conclude that the district court properly granted summary judgment for defendants on the Tribe's reserved water rights claim.
36 The Tribe brought a series of state-law claims against the City and TPU based on the property damage resulting from aggradation of the Skokomish River. The claims included inverse condemnation, trespass, tortious interference with property, conversion, negligence, negligent misrepresentation, private and public nuisance, and violation of Washington Revised Code section 4.24.630, which prohibits persons from going onto the land of another and wrongfully causing waste or injury to the land or to personal property. We find that all of the Tribe's state-law claims are barred by the applicable statutes of limitations. 37 Under Washington law, the statute of limitations for inverse condemnation is ten years. Highline Sch. Dist. No. 401 v. Port of Seattle, 87 Wash.2d 6, 548 P.2d 1085, 1089 (Wash.1976). The statutes of limitations for trespass, negligence, conversion, tortious interference, nuisance and actions under Washington Revised Code section 4.24.630 are three years. See Wash. Rev.Code § 4.16.080. 9 38 The district court found that the Tribe's aggradation-related claims began to accrue no later than February 16, 1989. On that date, Russell Busch, then attorney for the Tribe, wrote a letter to Gary Hansen at the Washington Department of Ecology, stating: 39 Please consider this letter both a formal protest and an intergovernmental comment by the Skokomish Indian Tribe with regard to the referenced water rights Applications for Permit and any other water use authorizations sought by the City of Tacoma in the Skokomish River Basin. 40 ... 41 The Skokomish Tribe resides upon a federal Indian Reservation on the Skokomish River downstream from the Applicant's [City of Tacoma] diversions and impoundments. It is the position of the Tribe that Applicant's actions reduce the natural flow of the river in such a way that: (1) Indian treaty fisheries are seriously reduced both on the Reservation and at other usual and accustomed places, in violation of the Treaty of Point No Point; (2) the federal reserved water rights of the Skokomish Reservation are unlawfully interfered with; and (3) the reduction of tributary inflow caused by Tacoma's impoundments and diversions is a direct and proximate cause of channel aggradation and flooding on [and] above the reservation. 42 Supp. E.R. at 408. 43 We agree with the district court that this was the applicable date of accrual. Though the Tribe argues that this is a factual issue that should have been submitted to the jury, where there is clear evidence of when the claims accrued, the court may make this determination. See Reichelt v. Johns-Manville Corp., 107 Wash.2d 761, 733 P.2d 530, 535-36 (1987); Fradkin v. Northshore Util. Dist., 96 Wash.App. 118, 977 P.2d 1265, 1268 (1999). To start the statute of limitations running in Washington, all that is required is: 44 [W]hen a plaintiff is placed on notice by some appreciable harm occasioned by another's wrongful conduct, the plaintiff must make further diligent inquiry to ascertain the scope of actual harm. The plaintiff is charged with what a reasonable inquiry would have discovered. Stated more succinctly, the law does not require a smoking gun in order for the statute of limitations to commence. 45 Giraud v. Quincy Farm & Chem., 102 Wash.App. 443, 6 P.3d 104, 109 (2000) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). Busch's formal protest of the Project in 1989 is sufficient to meet this standard. Thus, because the Tribe did not file its complaint until November 19, 1999, more than ten years after its aggradation-related claims accrued, its claims are time-barred. 46 There is an exception to the statute of limitations for certain trespass claims. Where a plaintiff can show that its claim is a continuing violation, the statute of limitation serves only to limit damages to those incurred in the three-year period before the suit was filed. Fradkin, 977 P.2d at 1267. To show a continuing violation, the plaintiff must demonstrate that the damage is reasonably abatable, id., which means that [t]he condition ... can be removed `without unreasonable hardship and expense,' id. at 1270 n. 25 (quoting Mangini v. Aerojet-Gen. Corp., 12 Cal.4th 1087, 51 Cal.Rptr.2d 272, 912 P.2d 1220, 1225 (1996)). It is the plaintiff's burden to prove reasonable abatability. See Mangini, 51 Cal.Rptr.2d 272, 912 P.2d at 1225-26. 47 The district court held that the Tribe's alleged damages were not reasonably abatable, precluding a finding of a continuing violation. The Tribe's expert estimated the value of the Tribe's property before the damage at $2,170,040. Supp. E.R. at 410, 421. The same expert estimated the total remediation cost at $3,770,500. Id. Given this large discrepancy between the cost of repair and the actual value of the land, it is clear that the damages could be abated only with unreasonable hardship and expense. 10 The district court correctly concluded that there was no continuing violation.
48 The Tribe also claims the City and TPU violated 16 U.S.C. § 803(c), which requires licensees to maintain project works in a condition so as not to impair navigation. Section 803(c) provides that [e]ach licensee hereunder shall be liable for all damages occasioned to the property of others by the construction, maintenance, or operation of the project works or of the works appurtenant or accessory thereto, constructed under the license, and in no event shall the United States be liable therefor. 49 The district court dismissed for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted, holding that section 803(c) does not provide a private right of action. This follows the Second Circuit's decision in DiLaura v. Power Authority of State of N.Y., 982 F.2d 73 (2d Cir.1992), and the D.C. Circuit's decision in South Carolina Public Service Authority v. FERC, 850 F.2d 788 (D.C.Cir.1988). 50 DiLaura and South Carolina Public Service Authority held that section 803(c) does not create a federal private right of action, but instead preserves only existing state-law claims against licensees. DiLaura, 982 F.2d at 77-79; S.C. Pub. Serv. Auth., 850 F.2d at 793-95. Their holdings were based on a reading of the statute as well as its legislative history. The legislative history revealed that all discussion during the floor debates centered on the premise that damages caused by licensees should be determined in accordance with state law. Id. at 795. As the D.C. Circuit explained, since Congress intended for [the statute] merely to preserve existing state laws governing the damage liability of licensees, it follows that the Commission may not encroach upon this state domain by engrafting its own rules of liability. Id. We believe this interpretation of section 803(c) is the correct one and thus see no cause for parting company with our sister circuits. We affirm the district court's dismissal of the Tribe's section 803(c) claim.
51 The Tribe also appeals the district court's denial of its motion to disqualify the district judge. Sixteen months after filing its complaint, and after the district court had already ruled on a number of claims, the Tribe asserted that Judge Burgess had an obligation to recuse himself because he was a utility customer, and the outcome of the case might substantially affect his utility bill. Judge Burgess denied the motion, finding it untimely. The Tribe moved for reconsideration, and Judge Burgess again denied recusal. Judge Burgess then referred the motion to Chief District Judge Coughenour, who also held it was untimely, because Judge Burgess had already ruled on at least fifteen different motions and trial was less than five months away. 52 A motion for recusal must be made with reasonable promptness after the ground for such a motion is ascertained. Preston v. United States, 923 F.2d 731, 733 (9th Cir.1991); see also Wood v. McEwen, 644 F.2d 797, 802 (9th Cir.1981) (per curiam) (waiting sixteen months after discovering the grounds for recusal was untimely and resulted in a waiver). The Tribe knew it was litigating a case against TPU in Tacoma federal court, before a Tacoma-area judge. It should have known when it filed its complaint that it might want to seek recusal of the judge assigned to the matter. At the very least, the Tribe admits that it believed it had grounds for recusal at least seven months before filing the motion. The district court thus did not abuse its discretion in denying the recusal motion. See Kulas v. Flores, 255 F.3d 780, 783 (9th Cir.2001). 11
53 Because we affirm the district court, we need not address the district court's denial of class certification. See Alexander v. Whitman, 114 F.3d 1392, 1398 n. 7 (3d Cir.1997) (because the court held that dismissal of the complaint was proper, it did not need to address the propriety of the district court's denial of plaintiffs' motion for class certification). 54 AFFIRMED IN PART AND TRANSFERRED TO THE COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS IN PART.