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Federal judge grants delay in American Indian trust settlement

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] US district court judge James Robertson granted Congress additional time Thursday to approve a $3.4 billion settlement against the government in a class action lawsuit brought for its alleged mismanagement of American Indian trust funds. The delay, the third since the settlement was reached in December, moves the congressional approval date from April 16 to May 28. Though Roberston approved the latest delay, he warned government lawyers that this is the last delay he will grant, stating that he will summon Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar if Congress fails to act within the time granted. Pending congressional approval, the settlement will be the largest American Indian claim ever approved by the US government and will end a fourteen year legal battle. Congress established the Indian trust in 1887 to hold proceeds from government-arranged leases of Indian lands. In July, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ordered the US Department of Interior to provide an accounting of the trust to the court. In 2008, Roberston rejected plaintiffs' claims that the government had engaged in fraud, but held that the DOI "unreasonably delayed" the accounting of billions of dollars of American Indian money. The case went to trial in June 2008, after the plaintiffs rejected a 2007 settlement proposal from the government.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on April 09, 2010 (boomark / email).