Court Opinion

ID: 9560695
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 17:53:44.837034+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:13:06.167250
License: Public Domain

RABINOWITZ, Justice,
dissenting.
I agree with the majority’s acknowledgement that ANCSA was intended to benefit Natives, and that courts, to that end, have adopted the policy of construing ambiguities in favor of Natives. For that reason I cannot agree with the majority’s expansive interpretation of “a primary place of business,” which requires reconveyance of Native lands “to protect a wide array of existing ... businesses.”
Furthermore, even assuming arguendo that the majority’s interpretation of “a primary place of business” as “that place which serves as the center of activity for [a] business” comports with Congress’ intent, it does not support the result reached in this case. Although Hakala may have had separate primary places of business for his guiding and air taxi businesses, the cabin at issue here was not the primary place of business for his guiding business. In 1971, the determinative year for purposes of reconveyance, Hakala guided twenty parties. Only two of those twenty parties were guided out of the Canoe Bay cabin. I fail to see how a cabin that served as a base for only one-tenth of the activities of Hakala’s guiding business can be “the center of activity for that business” or the “nucleus of his guiding business” for purposes of Section 14(c)(1). I therefore dissent.