Court Opinion

ID: 9513710
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 22:39:28.407197+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:05:59.167279
License: Public Domain

MARING, Justice,
dissenting.
[¶ 28] I respectfully dissent. Under the infringement test of Williams v. Lee, state court jurisdiction is not allowed over certain claims if it “would undermine the authority of the tribal courts over Reservation affairs and hence would infringe on the right of the. Indians to govern themselves.” 358 U.S. 217, 223, 79 S.Ct. 269, 3 L.Ed.2d 251 (1959). The majority opinion concludes state court jurisdiction violates the Williams infringement test when asserted in an action brought by a nonmember against an Indian because of an automobile accident which occurred on a portion of a state highway running through a reservation. I disagree.
[¶ 29] “There are two categories of claims over which the United States Supreme Court has held tribal courts have exclusive civil jurisdiction under the infringement test. Included in the first category are those claims in which a non-Indian asserts a claim against an Indian for conduct occurring on that Indian’s reservation. In the second category are those claims in which all the parties are members of the same Indian tribe and the claim involves conduct occurring on that tribe’s reservation.” Roe v. Doe, 2002 ND 136, ¶ 8, 649 N.W.2d 566 (citations omitted). The operative phrase in the first category is “occurring on that Indian’s reservation.” Id. at ¶ 22 (quoting Hornell Brewing Co. v. The Rosebud Sioux Tribal Court, 133 F.3d 1087, 1091 (8th Cir.1998)).
[¶ 30] In Strate v. A-1 Contractors, the United States Supreme Court held that a tribe’s adjudicatory jurisdiction over nonmembers does not exceed its legislative jurisdiction over nonmembers. 520 U.S. 438, 453, 117 S.Ct. 1404, 137 L.Ed.2d 661 (1997). In A Primer on Tribal Court Practice, B.J. Jones discussing tribal court civil jurisdiction states:
The distinction between the subject matter jurisdiction of a tribal court over a particular type of dispute and the personal jurisdiction over a particular person or entity has often been a murky one. This has been clarified somewhat by the recent United States Supreme Court Decision in A-1 Contractors v. Strate, wherein the Supreme Court postulated that Indian tribal courts can only exercise subject matter jurisdiction over disputes involving subject matter which the tribe can regulate under federal law. Therefore, when the tribal court exercises civil jurisdiction over non-Indians, that exercise of jurisdiction must comport with the United States Supreme Court’s pronouncements regarding the authority of a Tribe to regulate the conduct of a non-Indian within Indian country, especially Montana v. United States. Apparently, if the Tribe cannot regulate the activity, the tribal court cannot adjudicate a case questioning the activity.
*19B.J. Jones, A Primer on Tribal Court Civil Practice at http://www.court.state.nd.us/court/re-source/tribal.htm (footnotes omitted).
[¶ 31] Strate concerned the adjudicatory authority of tribal courts over personal injury actions against defendants who are not tribal members when the accident occurs on a portion of public highway maintained by the state under a federally granted right-of-way over Indian reservation land. 520 U.S. at 442, 117 S.Ct. 1404. The United States Supreme Court held such cases fall within state or federal regulatory and adjudicatory governance and “tribal courts may not entertain claims against nonmembers arising out of accidents on state highways.... ” Id. The Court noted that it expressed no view on the governing law or proper forum when an accident occurs on a tribal road within a reservation. Id. I am of the opinion that such language suggests that if the automobile accident involved a nonmember on a tribal road within the reservation, the tribal court may have jurisdiction over the subject matter because of its right to regulate those roads. I am, therefore, of the opinion that the location of the accident is important to whether the tribal court has civil jurisdiction. The United States Supreme Court held in Strate that its decision in Montana v. United States, 450 U.S. 544, 101 S.Ct. 1245, 67 L.Ed.2d 493 (1981), was the “pathmarking case” concerning tribal regulatory and adjudicatory authority over nonmembers. Strate, at 445, 117 S.Ct. 1404. “Montana thus described a general rule that, absent a different congressional direction, Indian tribes lack civil authority over the conduct of nonmembers on non-Indian land within a reservation, subject to two exceptions: The first exception relates to nonmembers who enter consensual relationships with the tribe or its members; the second concerns activity that directly affects the tribe’s political integrity, economic security, health, or welfare.” Strate, at 446, 117 S.Ct. 1404 (emphasis added). With regard to the second exception, the United States Supreme Court observed that “state courts may not exercise jurisdiction over disputes arising out of on-reservation conduct-even over matters involving non-Indians-if doing so would ‘infringe on the right of reservation Indians to make their own laws and be ruled by them.’ ” Id. at 452-53, 117 S.Ct. 1404 (quoting Fisher v. District Court of Sixteenth Judicial Dist. of Mont., 424 U.S. 382, 386, 96 S.Ct. 943, 47 L.Ed.2d 106 (1976) (citation omitted)). The United States Supreme Court held in Strate that “[t]he right-of-way North Dakota acquired for the State’s highway renders the 6.59 mile stretch equivalent, for nonmember governance purposes to alienated, non-Indian land.” Id. at 454, 117 S.Ct. 1404 (footnote omitted). The Court further held that as part of the State’s highway, “the right-of-way is open to the public, and traffic on it is subject to the State’s control.” Id. at 455, 117 S.Ct. 1404. The tribe’s loss of exclusive use and occupation implies a loss of regulatory jurisdiction over the use of land by others, and thus, the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Montana controls. Id. at 456, 101 S.Ct. 1245. The general rule set out in Montana precludes tribal court civil jurisdiction, requiring an examination of whether either of the two exceptions apply. The United States Supreme Court explains why the first and second exceptions in Montana do not apply. Id. at 457-58, 117 S.Ct. 1404. With regard to the first exception, the United States Supreme Court concludes the “Fredericks Stockert highway accident presents no ‘consensual relationship’ of the qualifying kind.” Id. at 457, 117 S.Ct. 1404. With regard to the second exception, the Court concludes: “Neither regulatory nor adjudicatory au*20thority over the state highway accident at issue is needed to preserve ‘the right of reservation Indians to make their own laws and be ruled by them.’ The Montana rule, therefore, and not its exceptions, applies to this case.” Id. at 459, 117 S.Ct. 1404 (citation omitted).
[¶ 32] The majority opinion in this case cites Nelson v. Dubois, 232 N.W.2d 54 (N.D.1975), and Schantz v. White Lightning, 231 N.W.2d 812 (N.D.1975), to support its position that the exercise of jurisdiction by the state court infringes on tribal rights to make their own laws and be ruled by them, but these cases were decided by our Court before Montana and Strate were decided by the United States Supreme Court. It is now clear that the second Montana exception’s proper application is: “Indian tribes retain their inherent power [to punish tribal offenders,] to determine tribal membership, to regulate domestic relations among members, and to prescribe rules of inheritance for members.... But [a tribe’s inherent power does not reach] beyond what is necessary to protect tribal self-government to control internal relations.” Strate, 520 U.S. at 459, 117 S.Ct. 1404 (quoting Montana, 450 U.S. at 564, 101 S.Ct. 1245).
[¶ 33] In Nevada v. Hicks, 533 U.S. 353, 121 S.Ct. 2304, 150 L.Ed.2d 398 (2001), the United States Supreme Court held that a tribal court did not have civil jurisdiction to adjudicate state officers’ alleged tortious conduct in executing a search warrant on reservation land for an off-reservation crime. In responding to Justice Stevens’ opinion concurring in the judgment, the United States Supreme Court noted that Justice Stevens thinks Strate “ ‘merely concerned the circumstances under which tribal courts can exert jurisdiction over claims against nonmembers.’ But Strate’s limitation on jurisdiction over nonmembers pertains to subject-matter, rather than merely personal, jurisdiction, since it turns upon whether the actions at issue in the litigation are regula-ble by the tribe.” Id. at 368 n. 8, 121 S.Ct. 2304 (citation omitted).
[¶ 34] I am of the opinion that Winer can pursue his case in state court, “open to all who sustain injuries on North Dakota’s highway[s].” Strate, 520 U.S. at 459, 117 S.Ct. 1404.
[¶ 35] I would reverse and remand for further proceedings.
[¶ 36] CAROL RONNING KAPSNER, J., concurs.