Turtle Talk

Here are the opinions out of the Eastern District of Washington:

Wapato Heritage DCT Order Granting Partial Summary J

Wapato Heritage DCT Order to Dismiss

An excerpt:

On May 19, 2006, Plaintiff submitted to Defendant a proposed “Replacement Lease” for MA-8, which would run for a term of 99 years and allow housing development on part of MA-8. In order to secure approval of the Replacement Lease, Plaintiff needed to obtain the consent of a majority of the beneficial owners of MA-8. To that end, Plaintiff and the BIA scheduled a number of meetings in the summer of 2006 with Indian landowners to provide information about the Replacement Lease. During the summer of 2006, Plaintiff asserted that a majority of beneficial owners had consented to the Replacement Lease, and included its own approximately 24% ownership interest in calculating that majority. Plaintiff’s interest is a life estate, with the remainder reverting to the Colville Confederated Tribes (“Tribe”).