United States Federal Circuit

In a suit alleging that under the relevant "bad men" provision in the Laramie Treaty with Sioux tribes, a non-Indian drunk driver's actions in killing two Sioux men on a Sioux reservation obligated the United States to reimburse the estates of the deceased for their losses, dismissal by the Court of Federal Claims for lack of jurisdiction is vacated, where: 1) the treaty text does not limit "bad men" among the whites to governmental actors; 2) the object and policy reasons underlying the treaty show it was written to cover provocations by all non-Sioux; and 3) the Claims Court's holding as to the scope of the "bad men" provision was prohibited by earlier precedent, Tsosie v. US, 825 F.2d 393 (Fed. Cir. 1987).

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/13/2012
• Published 04/13/2012

Judges

• Wallach

Court

• United States Federal Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• James D. Leach, J. Hunter Bennett