United States Ninth Circuit

In an action brought by Indian tribe members against a tribal housing authority alleging statutory and contractual violations involving allegedly improper construction of their homes, dismissal of the claims is affirmed in part, but reversed in part as to claims against the Housing Authority and its board members, as well as claims under the APA, where: 1) plaintiffs must exhaust their tribal court remedies before bringing their claim against the Housing Authority; 2) the government did not undertake a trust responsibility toward plaintiffs to construct houses or maintain or repair houses; and 3) plaintiffs alleged sufficient facts to state claims against HUD under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). (Opinion on rehearing)

Appellate Information

• Argued 05/09/2007
• Decided 08/22/2008
• Published 08/22/2008

Judges

• Before:  HARRY PREGERSON, SUSAN P. GRABER, and RONALD M. GOULD, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Thomas E. Towe, Towe, Ball, Enright, Mackey & Sommerfeld, PLLP, Jeffrey A. Simkovic, Simkovic Law Firm, Billings, MT;  Mary Ann Sutton, Attorney at Law, Missoula, MT, for the plaintiffs-appellants., John T. Harrison, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Tribal Legal Department, Pablo, MT;  Patterson V. Joe, Patterson V. Joe, P.C., Flagstaff, AZ, for the amici., Edmund Clay Goodman and Michael L. Roy, Hobbs, Straus, Dean & Walker LLP, Portland, OR, for Amici National American Indian Housing Council.


• For Appellees:
  
• Stephen A. Doherty and Patrick L. Smith, Smith, Doherty & Belcourt, P.C., Great Falls, MT;  Timothy J. Cavan, Assistant U.S. Attorney, Billings, MT, for the defendants-appellees.