Saturday, February 27, 2021
In
Olson v. United States, 2021 WL 137911 (Fed. Cl. 2021), lessees of trust land on the Yakama Reservation, sued the United States in the Court of Federal Claims under the
Tucker Act, contending that the Wapato Irrigation Project (WIP), which provided irrigation water to customers within the reservation, had violated its implicit agreement to provide water for their crops. The Court dismissed on the grounds that the United States, though acting as trustee for the trust beneficiaries, was not a party to the leases: “Each of these documents states that the lease or permit is a contract entered into ‘by and between the Indian or Indians named below (the Secretary of the Interior acting for and on behalf of the Indians) hereinafter called the ‘landlord,’ and an individual tenant. … Long-standing precedent from the Supreme Court, along with more recent binding precedent from the Federal Circuit, makes clear that the exercise of such
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Okla. Judge Axes Wind Farm s Damage Defense In Osage Suit
Law360 (January 12, 2021, 9:23 PM EST) An Oklahoma federal judge on Monday rejected several arguments raised by a group of wind farm developers seeking to escape damages for trespassing on tribal land and for failing to obtain permission for their wind turbine project on Osage Nation land.
Osage Minerals Council, which negotiates the tribe s mineral leases, requested in November that U.S. District Judge Gregory K. Frizzell dismiss wind farm developer Osage Wind LLC s estoppel, laches, waiver, unclean hands and in pari delicto arguments. OMC and the tribe argued that Osage Wind was trying to raise affirmative defenses under state law, even though the Tenth Circuit has ruled that federal policy.
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Osage Nation Wants Wind Farm Cos. Damage Defenses Nixed
Law360 (December 21, 2020, 3:28 PM EST) A council that negotiates mineral leases for the Osage Nation of Oklahoma is seeking to strike down defenses put forward by a group of wind farm developers, as an Oklahoma federal court considers appropriate damages for their trespass on Osage lands.
In a Friday reply brief, the Osage Minerals Council argued that developers Osage Wind LLC, Enel Kansas LLC and Enel Green Power North America Inc. are wrongly trying to raise affirmative defenses under state law, even though the Tenth Circuit has ruled that federal policy protecting Indian trust assets overrides such defenses.