United States Second Circuit

In an action by the Oneida Indian Nation claiming that the State of New York wrongfully appropriated its lands, partial summary judgment for defendants is affirmed in part where Cayuga was controlling, and thus all claims dependent on the assertion of a current possessory interest in the subject lands were barred by equitable defenses. However, the judgment is reversed in part where: 1) plaintiffs' purportedly nonpossessory claim was also barred, both by New York’s sovereign immunity and by the equitable principles applied in Cayuga; and 2) on the same basis, the alternative nonpossessory claim articulated on appeal by the plaintiffs, premised on a violation of the Nonintercourse Act, was also barred.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/09/2010
• Published 08/09/2010

Judges

• Debra Ann Livingston

Court

• United States Second Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Denise A. Hartman, Michael R. Smith