Bay View, Inc. v. United States

No. 00-5097 (278 F.3d 1259) (UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FEDERAL CIRCUIT December 3, 2001)

ELR Digest

The court upholds the dismissal of a native corporation's claims that a 1995 Amendment to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), which clarified that regional corporations do not have to share the proceeds from sales of net operating loss (NOL) deductions, resulted in a taking, a breach of trust, and a breach of contract. The court first holds that the native corporation does not possess a compensable property right in the regional corporations' revenue from the NOL sales and, hence, no taking occurred. ANCSA provides that a regional corporation must share with other regional corporations revenue received from the timber resources and subsurface estate patented to it under the Act. Here, the NOL sales generated revenues from sales of financial interests related to tax status, not from tangible timber or mineral estates. In addition, the court holds that ANCSA did not create a trust relationship mandating U.S. payment of money for breach of trust. Similarly, the court holds that there can be no breach of contract because ANCSA did not create a contract between the United States and Alaska natives.

The full text of this decision is available from ELR (9 pp., ELR Order No. L-413).

Counsel for Plaintiff
Samuel J. Fortier
Fortier & Mikko
2550 Denali St., Ste. 1500, Anchorage AK 99503
(907) 277-4222

Counsel for Defendant
Sandra S. Glover
Environment and Natural Resources Division
U.S. Department of Justice, Washington DC 20530
(202) 514-2000

[OPINION OMITTED BY PUBLISHER IN ORIGINAL SOURCE]