Menominee Indian Tribe of Wis. v. United States
Menominee Indian Tribe of Wis. v. United States
Opinion
Petitioner Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin (Tribe) seeks equitable tolling to preserve contract claims not timely presented to a federal contracting officer. Because the Tribe cannot establish extraordinary circumstances that stood in the way of timely filing, we hold that equitable tolling does not apply.
I
Congress enacted the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDA), Pub. L. 93-638,
In 1988, Congress amended the ISDA to apply the Contract Disputes Act of 1978 (CDA),
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Under the CDA, the contracting officer's decision is generally final, unless challenged through one of the statutorily authorized routes. § 7103(g). A contractor dissatisfied with the officer's decision may either take an administrative appeal to a board of contract appeals or file an action for breach of contract in the United States Court of Federal Claims. §§ 7104(a), (b)(1), 7105(b). Both routes then lead to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit for any further review.
Tribal contractors have repeatedly complained that the Federal Government has not fully honored its obligations to pay contract support costs. Three lawsuits making such claims are relevant here.
The first was a class action filed by the Ramah Navajo Chapter alleging that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) systematically underpaid certain contract support costs.
Ramah Navajo Chapter v. Lujan,
No. 1:90-cv-0957 (DNM) (filed Oct. 4, 1990). In 1993, Ramah successfully moved for certification of a nationwide class of all tribes that had contracted with the BIA under the ISDA. See Order and Memorandum Opinion in
Ramah Navajo Chapter v. Lujan,
No. 1:90-cv-0957 (D NM, Oct. 1, 1993), App. 35-40. The Government argued that each tribe needed to present its claims to a contracting officer before it could participate in the class.
The second relevant ISDA suit raised similar claims about contract support costs but arose from contracts with the Indian Health Service (IHS).
Cherokee Nation of Okla. v. United States,
No. 6:99-cv-0092 (E.D.Okla.) (filed Mar. 5, 1999). In
Cherokee Nation,
two tribes filed a putative class action against IHS. On February 9, 2001, the District Court denied class certification without addressing whether tribes would need to present claims to join the class.
Cherokee Nation of Okla. v. United States,
The third relevant case is the one now before us. In this case, the Tribe presented its contract support claims (for contract years 1995 through 2004) to IHS on September 7, 2005, shortly after our
Cherokee Nation
ruling. As relevant here, the contracting officer denied the Tribe's claims based on its 1996, 1997, and 1998 contracts because,
inter alia,
those claims were barred by the CDA's 6-year statute of limitations.
1
The Tribe challenged the denials
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in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, arguing, based on theories of class-action and equitable tolling, that the limitations period should be tolled for the 707 days that the putative
Cherokee Nation
class had been pending. See
American Pipe & Constr. Co. v. Utah,
Initially, the District Court held that the limitations period was jurisdictional and thus forbade tolling of any sort.
On remand, the District Court concluded that the Tribe's asserted reasons for failing to present its claims within the specified time "do not, individually or collectively, amount to an extraordinary circumstance" that could warrant equitable tolling.
The Court of Appeals' decision created a split with the Federal Circuit, which granted another tribal entity equitable tolling under similar circumstances. See
Arctic Slope Native Assn., Ltd. v. Sebelius,
II
The Court of Appeals denied the Tribe's request for equitable tolling by applying the test that we articulated in
Holland v. Florida,
The Tribe calls this formulation of the equitable tolling test overly rigid, given the doctrine's equitable nature. First, it argues that diligence and extraordinary circumstances should be considered together as two factors in a unitary test, and it faults the Court of Appeals for declining to consider the Tribe's diligence in connection
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with its finding that no extraordinary circumstances existed. But we have expressly characterized equitable tolling's two components as "elements," not merely factors of indeterminate or commensurable weight.
Pace v. DiGuglielmo,
Second, the Tribe objects to the Court of Appeals' interpretation of the "extraordinary circumstances" prong as requiring a litigant seeking tolling to show an "external obstacl[e]" to timely filing,
i.e.,
that "the circumstances that caused a litigant's delay must have been beyond its control."
III
The Tribe offers no circumstances that meet this standard.
Its mistaken reliance on the putative
Cherokee Nation
class action was not an obstacle beyond its control.
3
As the Tribe conceded below, see
The Tribe's mistake, in essence, was its inference that the reasoning of the
Ramah
class certification decision (allowing tribes to participate-without presentment-in the class challenging underpayment of BIA contract support costs) applied to the putative
Cherokee Nation
class. This mistake was fundamentally no different from "a garden variety claim of excusable neglect,"
Irwin v. Department of Veterans Affairs,
The Tribe's other excuses are even less compelling. Its belief that presentment was futile was not an obstacle beyond its control but a species of the same mistake that kept it out of the putative
Cherokee Nation
class. And the fact that there may have been significant risk and expense associated with presenting and litigating its claims is far from extraordinary. As the District Court noted below, "it is common for a litigant to be confronted with significant costs to litigation, limited financial resources, an uncertain outcome based upon an uncertain legal landscape, and impending deadlines. These circumstances are not 'extraordinary.' "
Finally, the Tribe also urges us to consider the special relationship between the United States and Indian tribes, as articulated in the ISDA. See 25 U.S.C. § 450a(b) ("Congress declares its commitment to the maintenance of the Federal Government's unique and continuing relationship with, and responsibility to, individual Indian tribes and to the Indian people as a whole"). We do not question the "general trust relationship between the United States and the Indian tribes," but any specific obligations the Government may have under that relationship are "governed by statute rather than the common law."
United States v. Jicarilla Apache Nation,
IV
For these reasons, the judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is affirmed.
It is so ordered.
Because the contract claims accrued no later than the end of each calendar-year contract, the District Court determined, the statute of limitations for the 1996, 1997, and 1998 contracts had run by January 1st of the years 2003, 2004, and 2005, respectively.
Holland v. Florida,
Because we conclude that the Tribe's mistake of law was not outside its control, we need not decide whether a mistake of law, however reasonable, could ever be extraordinary.
The Court of Appeals speculated, without deciding, that such a development might merit tolling, but like that court we have no occasion to decide the question.
Because we hold that there were no extraordinary circumstances, we need not decide whether the Tribe was diligently pursuing its rights. We also need not accept the Tribe's invitation to assess prejudice to the Government, because the absence of prejudice to the opposing party "is not an independent basis for invoking the doctrine [of equitable tolling] and sanctioning deviations from established procedures."
Baldwin County Welcome Center v. Brown,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- MENOMINEE INDIAN TRIBE OF WISCONSIN, Petitioner v. UNITED STATES Et Al.
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- 615 cases
- Status
- Published