OPINION AND ORDER
Two cases before this court, Walter J. Rosales and Karen Toggery v. United States, No. 08-512 L. (“Rosales X”), and Walter Rosales, et al. v. United States, No. 98-860 L. (“Rosales VI ”), arise out of a common set of facts and implicate similar principles of law. For the purposes of judicial economy, the court addresses both cases in this single opinion.
Both cases stem from internecine disputes among the members and purported members of the Jamul Indian Village (“Village”), a federally-recognized tribal government.
The court hereby grants defendant’s motion to dismiss the complaint in Rosales X, and dismisses, on its own motion, the complaint in Rosales VI.
I. BACKGROUND
The Village is a tribal governmental entity of the Kumeyaay Indians, which Congress recognized
Plaintiffs in Rosales X, Walter Rosales and Karen Toggery, are Native American residents of San Diego County, California, of one-half or more degree of California Indian blood. Rosales X, Compl. ¶ 1. Of the twelve plaintiffs named in the original complaint in Rosales VI, only two remain, Joe Comacho (also a Native American resident of San Diego County, Rosales VI, 3d Am. Compl. ¶ 1) and Walter Rosales; all other named plaintiffs have either died or withdrawn consent for suit since counsel filed the original complaint.
The path to the instant cases began in 1994, when a faction led by then Vice-Chairman Jane Dumas (“Dumas Faction”) held an election to recall and replace four Village officials
The Dumas Faction, including Mr. Rosales, Ms. Toggery, and others, continued to challenge tribal election results at IBIA. Next, they contested the propriety of the Village’s 1996 “secretarial” election, concerning a proposed amendment to the Village Constitution that would reduce the blood quantum requirement for Village membership from one-half to one-quarter. See Rosales II, 34 I.B.I.A. at 51-52. The Village had voted in favor of, and the Deputy Commissioner of Indian Affairs had ultimately approved, that amendment. Id. IBIA dismissed the Dumas Faction’s challenge for being procedurally defective, see id. at 51-54, evidently to plaintiffs’ profound dismay.
Plaintiffs’ grievance over the results of these tribal elections, in particular, the lowered blood quantum requirement for Village membership and plaintiffs’ exclusion from membership in the Village (i.e., the tribal government), would set off what is now a fifteen-year campaign of legal challenges.
In their suits against defendant United States, plaintiffs have advanced two theories for relief, alleging defendant’s breach of various fiduciary and trust duties. The first theory is founded upon plaintiffs’ challenge to the validity of tribal elections and the legitimacy of the current Village membership, while the second rests upon plaintiffs’ claim to beneficial ownership of two parcels of tribal land. The various complaints and amended complaints filed in the two cases before this court have invoked both theories for relief.
B. The Instant Litigation
1. Rosales v. United States, No. 08-512 (“Rosales X ”)
Before the court are two iterations of plaintiffs’ complaint: the original complaint, filed on July 15, 2008, and a proposed
Plaintiffs’ Rosales X claims focus on two parcels of tribal land. See, e.g., Rosales X, Compl. ¶¶ 69, 74 (stating the primary basis for plaintiffs’ two claims for relief); Am. Compl. ¶¶ 78, 83 (same). The first of these, a parcel of land currently designated 597-080-04 (“Parcel 04”), is the 4.66-acre portion of the original Mexican land grant of Rancho Jamul that Donald and Lawrence Daley conveyed, in 1978, to “‘[t]he United States of America in trust for such Jamul Indians of one-half degree or more Indian blood as the Secretary of the Interior may designate.’ ” See Rosales X, Compl. ¶ 11, Ex. D (the 1978 Deed); Am. Compl. ¶ 13. The other parcel, designated 597-080-05 (“Parcel 05”), comprises 1.372 acres of an original 2.21-acre plot of land that the Roman Catholic Bishop of San Diego conveyed on July 27, 1982, “to the United States of America in trust for the Jamul Indian Village.” See Rosales X, Compl. ¶ 21, Ex. F (the 1982 Deed); Am. Compl. ¶ 24. The remaining 0.838 acres of that 2.21-acre plot, designated 597-080-06 (“Parcel 06”), remains the property of the Bishopric and is not at issue in either case. See Rosales X, Compl. ¶ 22; Am. Compl. ¶ 25.
Plaintiffs in Rosales X assert that they, not the Village, are the rightful beneficial owners of Parcels 04 and 05. See Rosales X, Compl. ¶ 69 and Am. Compl. ¶ 74 (claiming that defendant breached its duties to plaintiffs by “failing to enforce the deed to, and Plaintiffs’ beneficial ownership of, [Parcels 04 and 05J”); Rosales X, Compl. ¶¶ 74-76 and Am. Compl. ¶¶ 83-85 (claiming that this same failure effected a taking). Plaintiffs previously made the same assertions in Rosales IX. See Rosales IX at *4 (discussing plaintiffs’ underlying assertion of their beneficial ownership interest in Parcel 04). Echoing Rosales IX, plaintiffs also argue that the federal government has duties, under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (“NAGPRA”),
2. Rosales v. United States, No. 98-860 (“Rosales VI”)
After losing its election challenge in Rosales I, and in an apparent attempt to attack that decision collaterally, the Dumas Faction brought suit in this court, filing the first Rosales VI complaint in 1998.
The Second Amended Complaint, the last amendment filed with the court’s leave, essentially continues the election challenges first launched in Rosales I. Plaintiffs claim that defendant breached its trust responsibilities by “dealing with non-members of JAMUL as if they were, in fact, members of JAMUL, and by independently and in conspiracy with the NONMEMBERS,
On March 6, 2009, plaintiffs filed a memorandum, opposing defendant’s updated motion to dismiss and seeking to consolidate this case with Rosales X, along with an eleven-page exhibit purporting to be a Third Amended Complaint. Rosales VI, Pis.’ Mem. in Opp’n to Def.’s Updated Mot. to Dismiss (“Pis.’ Opp’n.”) at 2; Ex. A. In their memorandum, plaintiffs “voluntarily dismiss[ed] those portions of their Second Amended Complaint not contained in their proposed Third Amended Complaint.” Rosales VI, Pis.’ Opp’n. at 2. On June 24, 2009 — the same day they filed their Rosales X motion to amend — plaintiffs filed a formal motion to amend the complaint in Rosales VI, along with an expanded, 41-page iteration of their Third Amended Complaint. Rosales VI, Pis.’ June 24, 2009 Mot. to Amend. (“Pis.’ June Mot.”). Plaintiffs’ Rosales VI June motion reiterates their abandonment of the elections-based claims, stating that, “[a]s pleaded in the proposed [third] amended complaint, Plaintiffs no longer make claims based upon their being the lawfully elected leaders of the tribe. Nor do they make claims for injury to tribal property, tribal assets, or any tribal interests.” Rosales VI, Pis.’ June Mot. at 4. Instead, in an apparent attempt to sidestep defendant’s updated motion for dismissal and to start this case anew, plaintiffs’ Third Amended Complaint in Rosales VI is a verbatim duplicate of the Rosales X Amended Complaint.
C. The Court Admits the Amended Complaints
In Rosales VI, the court hereby grants plaintiffs’ motion for leave to substitute the Third Amended Complaint. Accordingly, the court denies as moot defendant’s updated motion to dismiss, which was based on the claims asserted in the now-abrogated Second Amended Complaint.
In Rosales X, the court hereby grants plaintiffs’ motion for leave to substitute the Amended Complaint. Because the Amended Complaint in Rosales X alters nothing of the substance of the original complaint, however, the court deems defendant’s previously filed motion for dismissal to apply to the Amended Complaint.
The court admits the newly amended complaints not because the circumstances satisfy the Supreme Court’s standard for granting leave to amend. Foman v. Davis,
Having, in part, unscrambled the Rubik’s Cube of where Rosales VI and Rosales X currently stand, and with identical complaints now before the court in both eases, the court’s analysis begins — and ends — with the threshold question of whether it can adjudicate the merits of plaintiffs’ claims in either case.
II. ROSALES X
Because of the significance for the court’s decision of the near-identity of the Third Amended Complaint in Rosales VI and the Amended Complaint in Rosales X, the court routinely cites both complaints in the discussion below.
A. The Tucker Act’s Statute of Limitations Is a Jurisdictional Bar to Plaintiffs ’ Claims
Before adjudicating the merits of a case, a court must first ensure that it has jurisdiction to hear and decide the matter before it. E.g., Hardie v. United States,
1. The Tucker Act’s Statute of Limitations Is a Jurisdictional Requirement for Suits in This Court
This court’s jurisdiction flows principally from the Tucker Act, codified in pertinent part at 28 U.S.C. § 1491. Claims under the Tucker Act are subject to a six-year statute of limitations: “[e]very claim of which the United States Court of Federal Claims has jurisdiction shall be barred unless the petition thereon is filed within six years after such claim first accrues.” 28 U.S.C. § 2501. Unlike most statutes of limitations, which are typically treated as affirmative defenses, § 2501 is “a jurisdictional requirement for a suit in the Court of Federal Claims” and one that “may not be waived.” John R. Sand & Gravel Co. v. United States,
A claim accrues under § 2501, and the six-year limitations period begins to run, “when all events have occurred to fix the government’s alleged liability, entitling the claimant to demand payment and sue here for his money.” Martinez,
A narrow “accrual suspension” rule allows “the accrual of a claim against the United States [to be] suspended, for purposes of 28 U.S.C. § 2501,-[only if] the plaintiff [can] either show that the defendant has concealed its acts with the result that plaintiff was unaware of their existence or ... that its injury was inherently unknowable at the accrual date.” Young v. United States,
It is sometimes stated that accrual ... will be suspended until the claimant “knew or should have known” that the claim existed. That articulation of the rule is not meant to set forth a different test.... [T]he “concealed or inherently unknowable” formulation ... is both more common and more precise and we therefore endorse that formulation as the preferable one.
Ingrum v. United States,
3. Plaintiffs’ Claims Accrued No Later Than 1982
Plaintiffs’ claims all arise out of defendant’s recognition of the Village as the beneficial owner of Parcels 04 and 05, and its failure to enforce plaintiffs’ purported ownership interest in these parcels. See, e.g., Rosales X, Am. Compl. ¶¶ 71, 78, 83; Rosales VI, 3d Am. Compl. ¶¶ 72, 83, 88. Plaintiffs’ focus, Rosales X, Pis.’ Opp’n at 2, 37, on their 2007 eviction is misguided. See Del. State Coll.,
In sum, it is a single act by defendant, with respect to each of these two parcels, that marked the final event “flx[ing] the government’s alleged liability, entitling [plaintiffs] to demand payment and sue here for [their] money.” Martinez,
Finally, defendant’s acts must have been actively concealed or inherently unknowable for plaintiffs’ claims to be eligible for accrual suspension. Ingram,
4. The Indian Trust Accounting Statute Is Unavailable to Suspend the Accrual of Plaintiffs’ Claims
In the alternative, plaintiffs contend that the Indian Trust Accounting Statute (“ITAS”), Pub.L. No. 108-108, 117 Stat.
[Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the statute of limitations shall not commence to run on any claim, including a claim in litigation pending on the date of the enactment of this Act, concerning losses to or mismanagement of trust funds, until the affected tribe or individual Indian has been furnished with the accounting of such funds from which the beneficiary can determine whether there has been a loss.
Pub.L. No. 108-108, 117 Stat. 1263 (2003). Thus, when ITAS applies, the Tucker Act’s statute of limitations does not begin to run, nor does a claim accrue for breach of fiduciary duty regarding a trust fund, until the complaining Indian tribe or individual has received an accounting, thereby learning of the trustee’s repudiation. See Shoshone Indian Tribe v. United States,
Shoshone held that ITAS only applies to trust funds, and that the statute does not toll a claim for breach of fiduciary duty regarding trust assets. See id. at 1348-50. As the Federal Circuit explained, claims regarding trust funds include claims concerning the trustee’s duty (1) to collect payments under tribe contracts, (2) to deposit collected money into the tribes’ interest-bearing trust accounts, and (3) to assess contractual penalties for late payment against breaching parties. Id. at 1350. In contrast, ITAS does not apply to assets held in trust, such as sand and gravel, timber, or oil and gas assets. See Shoshone,
Here, plaintiffs’ claims for breach of fiduciary duty center on parcels of land, which are assets held in trust, not trust funds. ITAS is therefore unavailable to toll the accrual of plaintiffs’ claims.
5. Plaintiffs’ Claims Are Barred by the Statute of Limitations
Plaintiffs’ claims accrued in 1981 and 1982, as to Parcels 04 and 05, respectively. The six-year limitations period, under § 2501, thus expired no later than 1988, nearly two decades before plaintiffs filed their original complaint in Rosales X, on July 15, 2008.
B. Issue Preclusion Bars Adjudication of Plaintiffs’ Claims
Assuming, arguendo, that plaintiffs’ claims in Rosales X are timely, the Village’s absence as a party to this litigation is a sufficient, independent ground for dismissal. Plaintiffs’ claims in Rosales X rest upon the foundational assumption that plaintiffs, not the Village, are the rightful beneficial owners of Parcels 04 and 05. See Rosales X, Am. Compl. ¶¶ 75-87. Over the course of the labyrinthine history of these disputes, other courts have determined that plaintiffs cannot maintain any claims that assert, explicitly or implicitly, beneficial ownership of tribal land, such as Parcels 04 and 05, without joining the Village, a “necessary and indispensable” party. Rosales VII Ajfirmance at 914-15; Rosales IX at *5-* 6. The doctrine of issue
Issue preclusion, or collateral es-toppel,
Plaintiffs’ claims in the instant case rest upon the foundational assumption that they, not the Village, are the rightful beneficial owners of Parcels 04 and 05. Adjudication of their claims thus requires, as a first step, a determination of the ownership status of these two parcels. The success of plaintiffs’ claims in Rosales IX was likewise contingent on their claim of beneficial ownership to Parcel 04. See Rosales IX at *4. In that ease, plaintiffs claimed, as they do before this court, that the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) imposed an affirmative duty of trust upon the federal government to prevent construction on those parcels of land, including Parcel 04, where Native American remains allegedly exist. See Rosales IX at *2, *8-* 10. Plaintiffs asserted that this duty was owed to them as the beneficial owners of Parcel 04. Id. The Rosales IX court held that plaintiffs could not dispute the ownership of that land in the absence of the Village, whose ownership interest was directly implicated, and whose joinder was barred by sovereign immunity. Id. at *5-*6. Concluding that the United States could not adequately represent the Village’s interests, the Rosales IX court refused to allow its plaintiffs to “make an end run around tribal sovereign immunity by suing the United States” and litigating the ownership status of Parcel 04 without the Village. Id. Rosales IX held that, pursuant to Rule 19 of the Federal Rules of Civil PROCEdure (“FRCP”),
Pointing to the holding in Rosales IX, defendant raises issue preclusion as a bar to plaintiffs’ claims.
(1) the issue is identical to one decided in the first action; (2) the issue was actually litigated in the first action; (3) resolution of the issue was essential to a final judgment in the first action; and (4) the party against whom estoppel is invoked had a full and fair opportunity to litigate the issue in the first action.
Innovad Inc. v. Microsoft Corp.,
1. Identity of the Issue
Under the first prong of the test, the question is whether the issue of the Village’s status as a necessary and indispensable party is the same in the instant litigation as it was in Rosales IX.
The Rosales X claims rest no less critically upon plaintiffs’ assertion of beneficial ownership of tribal land (Parcels 04 and 05) than did their unsuccessful claims in Rosales IX. Compare Rosales X, Am. Compl. ¶¶ 78 (claiming that defendant breached its duties to plaintiffs by “failing to enforce the deed to, and Plaintiffs’ beneficial ownership of, [Parcels 04 and 05]”) and 83-85 (claiming that this same failure effected a taking), with Rosales IX at *4 (discussing plaintiffs’ claims of beneficial ownership in Parcel 04). Plaintiffs still rely, as they did in Rosales IX, upon NAGPRA to establish defendant’s alleged breach of its fiduciary duty, in failing to stop construction activity on Parcels 04 and 05. Compare Rosales X, Am. Compl. ¶ 71(4)-(10) (setting forth plaintiffs’ NAGPRA claims) with Rosales IX at *8-* 10 (rejecting plaintiffs’ arguments that the government has any affirmative duties pursuant to NAGPRA to prevent the inadvertent discovery of human remains on these same parcels).
Moreover, the facts that plaintiffs marshal in support of their Rosales X claims duplicate, in large swaths, the facts alleged in Rosales IX. Compare, e.g., Rosales X, An. Compl. ¶¶ 11-21, 28-51 (detailing plaintiffs’ claims to beneficial ownership of Parcel 04) loith Rosales IX, Am. Compl. ¶¶ 19-30, 33-42, 44-54 (same); see also Rosales VI, 3d Am. Compl. ¶¶ 12-22, 29-52 (same). The evidence that plaintiffs use to support their present complaint is likewise recycled: of thirteen exhibits that accompanied the Rosales IX complaint, plaintiffs have attached eleven to their Rosales X Amended Complaint (and to the Third Amended Complaint in Rosales VI). Compare Rosales X, Am. Compl., Exs. List, with Rosales IX, Am. Compl., Exs. List; see also Rosales VI, 3d Am. Compl., Exs. List. Even typographical errors in the Rosales X complaint (and in the Rosales VI Third Amended Complaint) unwittingly reveal the extent to which plaintiffs are re-litigating Rosales IX. Specifically, the complaints share the same mistyped citation to a Memorandum of the Solicitor of the Department of the Interior: “supra not [sic] 76, at 1497.” Compare Rosales X, Am. Compl. ¶ 42 and Rosales VI, 3d Am. Compl. ¶ 43 with Rosales IX, Am. Compl. ¶ 45.
Thus, it is manifest that Rosales IX decided the identical issue now before this court, namely, whether the Village is an indispensable party to the adjudication of claims challenging the Village’s ownership interest in tribal land.
Finally, aside from the exact identity of the issue, the policy underlying the doctrine of issue preclusion supports its appliea
2.Whether the Issue Was Actually Litigated
The second prong of the Federal Circuit’s test for issue preclusion asks whether the issue has been litigated previously. See Innovad,
First, upon review of the procedural history in Rosales IX, it is clear that the Village’s status as a necessary and indispensable party was properly raised in that case. The claims in the Rosales IX complaint, as cited above, clearly implicate this issue. Second, the parties in Rosales IX obviously submitted this issue for determination: the issue was addressed in the defendant’s motion to dismiss and in plaintiffs’ opposition thereto, and was the subject of oral argument before the Rosales IX court. See Rosales IX, Mot. to Dismiss at 12-17; Rosales IX, Pis.’ Opp’n at 25-31. Finally, the Rosales IX court made clear that its dismissal, with prejudice and without leave to amend, was grounded squarely in its determination that the Village was a necessary and indispensable party to the adjudication of any claims implicating the ownership status of the land at issue. Rosales IX at *5-6, *10. The second prong of the test for erecting issue preclusion as a bar to plaintiffs’ claims is thus easily met.
3. Whether Determination of the Issue Was Essential to the Resulting Judgment
The inquiry under the third prong of the test does not require that the prior determination of an issue “be so crucial that, without it, the [prior] judgment could not stand.” Mother’s Rest., Inc. v. Mama’s Pizza, Inc.,
4. Whether Plaintiffs Had a Full and Fair Opportunity to Litigate
Finally, a party against whom issue preclusion is sought must have had a “full and fair opportunity” to litigate in the prior proceeding. Banner,
Here, the court can easily dispense with the latter two factors. As their filings in that case indicate, plaintiffs clearly had a strong incentive to litigate Rosales IX. There, as in Rosales X, plaintiffs alleged that their family members’ gravesites were being desecrated and their remains and associated funerary objects removed or destroyed by on-going excavation and construction. Compare, e.g., Rosales X, Am. Compl. ¶¶ 52-55, 60 (detailing plaintiffs’ factual allegations concerning their family members’ remains), with Rosales IX, Am. Compl. ¶¶ 62-63, 67-73 (reciting identical allegations). According to plaintiffs, that interference with their family members’ remains “has caused and will continue to cause severe pei’sonal, physical, and bodily injury, including severe emotional distress.” Id. ¶¶ 72-73. This court cannot conclude that plaintiffs’ incentive to litigate Rosales IX was in any way insufficient. See Franklin,
Nor do plaintiffs fare any better on the first factor, which considers whether there was a significant procedural hurdle in Rosales IX. As the Supreme Court has observed, “the full and fair opportunity to litigate” criterion is generally satisfied as long as the procedures in the first action comported with minimum due process requirements. See Kremer v. Chemical Constr. Corp.,
Having satisfied all four prongs of the Federal Circuit’s test for issue preclusion, the Rosales IX decision thus bars the adjudication of plaintiffs’ claims in Rosales X, absent the Village. Because plaintiffs have not and cannot cure the defect of the Village’s absence, this court cannot permit “[s]uch a fundamental departure from traditional rules of preclusion,” as adjudicating plaintiffs’ claims would require. See Kremer,
C. The Village Remains a Necessary and Indispensable Party
Assuming, arguendo, that plaintiffs’ claims could escape the preclusive effect of Rosales IX, the court nonetheless must dismiss the complaint in Rosales X, pursuant to RCFC 19, for failure to join the Village, a necessary and indispensable party. As the court has noted repeatedly, plaintiffs’ claims in Rosales X rest critically upon plaintiffs’ assertion that they, not the Village, are the rightful beneficial owners of Parcels 04 and 05. This court is convinced, for many of the reasons recited above in Section II.B, that the Village must be a party to this or any litigation in which its ownership interests are implicated and, indeed, would be implicitly abrogated by a judgment in favor of plaintiffs. Simply put, this court agrees with the substantive analysis of the Rosales IX court.
Pursuant to RCFC 19, this court must ask whether an absent party is necessary to the litigation, and its joinder thus required. United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians of Okla. v. United States (“UKB”),
[T]hat [party] claims an interest relating to the subject of the action and is so situated that disposing of the action in the [party]’s absence may: (i) as a practical matter impair or impede the [partyj’s ability to protect the interest; or (ii) leave an existing party subject to a substantial risk of incurring double, multiple, or otherwise inconsistent obligations because of the interest.
RCFC 19(a) (emphasis added).
Plaintiffs’ contention that the Village’s interest is merely “indirect and contingent,” Rosales X, Pis.’ Opp’n at 46, is at odds with reality. Defendant has a duty as the trustee of Parcels 04 and 05, and is liable to the beneficial owners for any breach of that duty. Adjudicating plaintiffs’ claims would require determining the threshold question of plaintiffs’ beneficial ownership of Parcels 04 and 05, and thus necessarily implicates the Village’s ownership interest. See, e.g., Rosales IX at *5-*6. This court would require from the Village a waiver of sovereign immunity, which waiver the court does not have, in order to render a judgment in this matter. Any potential judgment in plaintiffs’ favor, requiring defendant to remedy what plaintiffs characterize as interference with their ownership rights to Parcels 04 and 05, would necessarily “impair or impede” the Village’s ownership interest in that land.
The Village has the additional and “substantial interest in protecting the rulings of its judicial system from collateral attack.” St. Pierre v. Norton,
Finally, this court rejects plaintiffs’ conelu-sory contention that the Village has no legally protected interest at issue in the instant case. See Rosales X, Pis.’ Opp’n at 48-49. That contention is based on plaintiffs’ oft-asserted, but never-successful theory that the Village, a political entity permitting membership to those of at least one-quarter Jamul Indian blood, has never had proper beneficial ownership of Parcels 04 or 05, which parcels instead remain in trust only for individuals of one-half Jamul Indian blood. Id. at 49 (citing Rosales X, Compl. ¶¶ 14-15, 27-28, 31-37, 40, 44-46 & Ex. E); see also Rosales VI, Pis.’ Opp’n. at 48-49 (making the same argument). Both the Rosales VII and Rosales IX courts flatly rejected this legal just-so story; so, too, does this court.
2. The Village Is an “Indispensable” Party
Where joinder is required under RCFC 19(a) but is not feasible, a court must determine whether, “in equity and good conscience, the action should proceed among the existing parties or be dismissed.” RCFC 19(b). If a court decides that the matter should be dismissed, the absent party is thus deemed “indispensable.” See, e.g., UKB,
(1) the extent to which a judgment rendered in the [party]’s absence might prejudice that [party] or the existing parties;
(2) the extent to which any prejudice could be lessened or avoided by: (A) protective provisions in the judgment; (B) shaping the relief; or (C) other measures;
(3) whether a judgment rendered in the [party]’s absence would be adequate; and
(4) whether the plaintiff would have an adequate remedy if the action were dismissed for nonjoinder.
RCFC 19(b).
The claims that plaintiffs advance— seeking redress for the United States’ alleged breach of its duty to them as beneficial owners of Parcels 04 and 05—directly implicate the Village’s ownership interests in, and its exercise of jurisdiction over, that land. Therefore, this court cannot fashion relief that would not prejudice the interests of the Village in asserting its beneficial ownership of the land at issue, see Rosales VII Affirmance at 914; Rosales IX at *5-*6, or in enforcing the judgments of its tribal courts, St. Pierre,
This court is persuaded by the Ninth Circuit’s body of precedent, which holds that the United States cannot adequately represent the interests of an absent tribe in an “intertribal” dispute, a category that includes disputes between a tribe and non-tribe groups or individuals. Upon similar facts, the Ninth Circuit held that “no partial or compromise remedy exists that will not prejudice the [tribal government], since a finding that the [claimants have] rights to the beneficial ownership of the [land] or that the [United States] government owes certain duties to the [claimants] will prejudice the [tribal government’s right to govern the Tribe, which is the designated beneficial owner of the land.” Pit River Home & Agr. Coop. Ass’n v. United States,
Because the United States cannot adequately represent the interests of the Village, and because the court cannot otherwise fashion i’elief that would not prejudice those substantial interests, this court cannot, in equity and good conscience, proceed to adjudicate plaintiffs’ claims in the Village’s absence. Because the Village has not waived its sovereign immunity, the comb is without power to compel the Village’s joinder. The Village is, therefore, an indispensable party to the instant action. Assuming, arguendo, that all other grounds for dismissal are inadequate, the court must nonetheless dismiss the complaint in Rosales X, pursuant to RCFC 19.
III. ROSALES VI
The Third Amended Complaint in Rosales VI is a verbatim copy of the Rosales X Amended Complaint, with three notable, though ultimately inconsequential exceptions.
A. The Two Additional Claims Raise No New Issues
In their Third Amended Complaint, the Rosales VI plaintiffs recite four claims for relief: the two claims made in Rosales X—(1)
B. The Earlier Filing Date Still Leaves the Claims in Rosales VI Untimely Under § 2501
The original complaint in Rosales VI was filed on November 12, 1998, nearly a decade before the original Rosales X filing. However, because the six-year limitations period for plaintiffs’ claims expired in 1988, the 1998 filing date in Rosales VI is still a decade too late.
Claim accrual under § 2501 may be suspended only where the injury is actively “concealed or inherently unknowable,” Ingram,
Defendant, in its motion to dismiss Rosales X, cites to these cases, apparently conceding that constructive notice may be required. See Rosales X, Mot. to Dismiss at 11. Accordingly, defendant cites the language of the 1982 deed to Parcel 05, see supra Section III.A.3, which the court agrees is sufficient to support a finding of constructive notice. Rosales X, Mot. to Dismiss at 13. As to parcel 04, defendant’s Rosales X motion points only to plaintiffs’ admission to having actual notice, in 2001, of defendant’s recognition of the Village’s beneficial ownership of that parcel. Id. at 12 (citing Rosales VII, Compl. ¶¶ 18-19). Defendant is content to rely on the 2001 date, in its Rosales X motion, because even that date is early enough to render time-barred plaintiffs’ 2008 complaint. The original Rosales VI complaint, on the other hand, was filed in 1998. Lest plaintiffs, in their litigious zeal, see an opening here, the court assures them there is none.
No hypothetical notice requirement can restore the timeliness of plaintiffs’ complaint in Rosales VI. In order for the 1998 filing to be timely, plaintiffs’ claims need to have accrued no earlier than November 13, 1992. Defendant recognized the Village’s beneficial ownership of parcels 04 and 05, in 1981 and 1982, respectively. It defies the imagination that, over the course of the subsequent decade, plaintiffs did not have actual, let alone constructive, notice of defendant’s act, or of conduct by the Village inconsistent with their beneficial ownership, as individuals, of the land in question.
C. The Village’s Status As an Indispensable Party Is Unaltered by the Presence of a New Plaintiff
Of the twelve plaintiffs named in the original Rosales VI complaint, only two remain:
However, the claims in Rosales VI implicate no less than do the Rosales X claims the Village’s interests in asserting its beneficial ownership over Parcels 04 and 05, and in protecting the integrity of its judicial system. Mr. Comacho’s presence as a plaintiff, therefore, cannot alter this court’s own substantive holding that the Village is a necessary and indispensable party, in whose absence the court cannot proceed to adjudicate the merits of plaintiffs’ claims.
Nor is there consequence to the absence of a party motion for dismissal on this ground. Because the court admits plaintiffs’ Third Amended Complaint through its present order, defendant has not had an opportunity to submit a new motion to dismiss, responsive to plaintiffs’ revised complaint, and thus has not raised the issue of the Village’s absence as a ground for dismissal in Rosales VI. However, as the Supreme Court recently reiterated, a court may consider sua sponte the absence of a required party, under Rule 19, and dismiss an action for non-joinder. Philippines v. Pimentel, — U.S.-,
Therefore, despite the above differences between the Rosales X and Rosales VI complaints, the court’s grounds for dismissing the former support no less surely dismissal of the latter.
IV. CONCLUSION
Plaintiffs’ motion to admit the Amended Complaint in Rosales X is GRANTED. The court concludes that plaintiffs’ claims in Rosales X are untimely under the Tucker Act’s statute of limitations, leaving the court without jurisdiction to hear them. To the extent that any of plaintiffs’ claims are timely, the doctrine of issue preclusion nonetheless bars plaintiffs from relitigating the defect that mandated dismissal in Rosales IX. Finally, even if plaintiffs’ claims were both timely and somehow exempt from the preclusive effect of Rosales IX, this court concludes that it must dismiss the action due to the absence of the Village, a necessary and indispensable party. Accordingly, defendant’s motion to dismiss in Rosales X is GRANTED, and plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment and all other outstanding motions in Rosales X are therefore DENIED-AS-MOOT.
Plaintiffs’ motion to admit the Third Amended Complaint in Rosales VI is GRANTED. As in Rosales X, the court concludes that plaintiffs’ claims in Rosales VI are untimely under the Tucker Act’s statute of limitations, leaving the court without jurisdiction to hear them. To the extent that any of plaintiffs’ claims are timely, the Village remains a necessary and indispensable party, in whose absence the court must dismiss the action. Accordingly, the Third Amended Complaint in Rosales VI is DISMISSED, and defendant’s updated motion to dismiss the prior Second Amended Complaint and all other outstanding motions in Rosales VI are therefore DENIED-AS-MOOT.
Furthermore, based on plaintiffs’ history of repeating the same claims across multiple suits and venues, and their pattern, in these proceedings, of non-responsive filings, of repeated noncompliance with the rules of this court, of poor citation practices, and of wholesale copying of previous filings in other venues that were dismissed with prejudice,
IT IS SO ORDERED.
Notes
. The court will use "Village” to refer to the recognized government of the Jamul Indians and "Tribe” to refer to the Jamul Indians as an organized group.
. The first round of litigation comprised administrative challenges, before the Department of the Interior Board of Indian Appeals ("IBIA”), concerning various Village elections, electoral procedures, and membership eligibility. These cases are: (1) Rosales v. Sacramento Area Dir. (“Rosales I"), 32 I.B.I.A. 158 (1998); (2) Rosales v. Sacramento Area Dir. (“Rosales II"), 34 I.B.I.A. 50 (1999); (3) Rosales v. Sacramento Area Dir. ("Rosales III"), 34 I.B.I.A. 125 (1999); and (4) Rosales v. Sacramento Area Dir. (“Rosales IV ”), 39 I.B.I.A. 12 (2003).
Contemporaneously, plaintiffs brought challenges in federal courts, seeking review of various matters relating to the election disputes at issue in Rosales I-IV. These cases are: (5) Jamul Indian Vill. v. Hunter, No. 95-131 (S.D.Cal. voluntarily dismissed Sept. 30, 1996) (seeking to enforce a “judgment” from the "tribal court” of a faction of the Tribe that had lost in tribal elections); (6) Rosales v. Townsend ("Rosales V"), No. 97-769 (S.D.Cal. voluntarily dismissed Nov. 19, 1998); and (7) Rosales v. United States ("Rosales VIII"),
In their most recent round of litigation, plaintiffs sought to secure beneficial ownership of several parcels of land that the Village has claimed. These cases are: (8) Rosales VI; (9) Rosales v. United States, No. 01-951 (S.D.Cal. Feb. 14, 2002) ("Rosales VII"), aff'd on other grounds,
Additionally, there are several cases which arise out of the same set of facts, but are tangential to the issues before this court. Plaintiffs’ counsel in this case also filed a challenge to the Village's casino gaming plan in (12) Rosales v. Kean Argovitz Resorts, Inc., No. 00-1910 (S.D.Cal. Apr. 18, 2001), af’d,
. "Federal acknowledgment or recognition of an Indian group’s legal status as a tribe is a formal political act confirming the tribe’s existence as a distinct political society and institutionalizing the government-to-government relationship between the tribe and the federal government.” Cohen's Handbook Of Federal Indian Law § 3.02[3] (2005). That recognition creates a fiduciary relationship between the government and the tribe, formalizes the tribe's power to tax and to establish its own judiciary, and determines the tribe's eligibility for the congressionally-crealed programs and services that the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs provides. See id.; see generally Mark D. Myers, Federal Recognition of Indian Tribes in the United States, 12 Stan. L. & Pol'y Rev. 271 (2001).
. Section 19 of IRA, 25 U.S.C. § 479, defines the term "Indian” to include "all other persons of one-half or more Indian blood.” In reviewing a tribal constitution, the Department of the Interi- or has historically sought to exclude from tribal membership “a large number of applicants with a small degree of Indian blood.” See Bursty Gover, Genealogy as Continuity: Explaining the Growing Tribal Preference for Descent Rules in Membership Governance in the United States, 33 Am. Indian L.Rev. 243, 262-69 (2009) (explaining the history and application of the Indian "blood quantum” and its role in tribal membership).
. Section 16 of IRA, 25 U.S.C. § 476, details the procedures for an Indian tribe to organize as a political unit and to establish the rules for its self-governance.
. Six of the original plaintiffs revoked permission for the attorney of record, Patrick D. Webb, to represent them in any pending litigation; five of those stated that they had never authorized Webb to represent them. Rosales VI, Updated Mot. to Dismiss, Ex. 11, Declaration of Kenneth Meza ("Meza Deck”), Ex. B. Another two plaintiffs withdrew from the litigation. Id. Kenneth Meza,
. These officials are Raymond Hunter, Marcia Goring-Gomez, Mary Alveraz, and Lee Shaw-Conway. Rosales I at 161.
. Codified, in pertinent part, at 25 U.S.C. §§ 3001-3013, NAGPRA lays out federal agencies' procedures and obligations when Native American human remains or associated funerary objects are discovered. See Rosales IX at *2 n. 3. NAGPRA also sets forth the responsibilities of museums and federal agencies that controlled such remains or objects before NAGPRA became law. Id.
. According to the "the network theory” of jurisdiction under the Tucker Act and Indian Tucker Act, a meshwork of statutes and regulations may, under some circumstances, substitute for a clear money-mandating statute. See United States v. Navajo Nation ("Navajo Nation I"),
. In the alternative, defendant has moved to dismiss for failure to state a claim, pursuant to RCFC 12(b)(6), but, curiously, does not cite RCFC 12(b)(7) (which permits dismissal for failure to join a party under Rule 19).
. Plaintiffs' counsel, Patrick D. Webb, filed Rosales VI despite not being admitted to this court’s bar at the time. See Rosales VI, Compl. at 1; Rosales VI, Defect Slip, Mar. 17, 1999 (stating that the complaint did not comply with RCFC 81(d)(1) because Mr. Webb was not admitted to this court's bar).
. The court first stayed Rosales VI from April 19, 2000 through February 26, 2004, and ordered the parties to file a joint status report following the conclusion of Rosales IV. Rosales VI, Docket No. 39 (Order of Apr. 19, 2000 Granting Stay) & Docket No. 40 (Order of Feb. 26, 2004). The court stayed Rosales VI a second time, from March 19, 2004 through September 26, 2008, at the parties’ request, pending the outcome of Rosales VIII. Rosales VI, Docket No. 43 (Order of Mar. 19, 2004 Granting Parties’ Stay Request); Order of Sept. 26, 2008 Lifting Stay. Then-Chief Judge Damich transferred Rosales VI to this judge on September 26, 2008. Rosales VI, Docket No. 75 (Order Transferring Case).
. These styled "NON-MEMBERS” include the four members of the Incumbent Faction whose recall was at issue in Rosales I. Compare note 7, supra (listing the officials at issue), with Rosales VI, 2d Am. Compl. ¶ 7 (including those same officials in the list of "NONMEMBERS”). See also id. ¶ 9 (alleging that the "NON-MEMBERS” have never been enrolled members of the Village).
. There are only two differences between the two complaints: (1) the inclusion of Joe Coma-cho as a plaintiff, and (2) the recitation of two additional, wholly subordinate claims in the Rosales VI Third Amended Complaint (see infra Section III for discussion of these differences).
. ITAS was first adopted in 1990, and has been readopted each year since without any material changes. Because plaintiffs cite to the 2003 version of ITAS, so does the court.
. The Amended Complaint in Rosales X, asserting the identical claims and arising out of the identical “conduct, transaction, or occurrence" set out in the original complaint, qualifies for relation back to the original filing date, pursuant toRCFC 15(c)(1).
. While this court prefers the doctrine's more precise label of "issue preclusion,” many courts continue to use the term "collateral estoppel” either exclusively or interchangeably with "issue preclusion."
. In Young Engineers, Inc. v. United States International Trade Commission,
. FRCP 19 is identical, in pertinent part, to RCFC 19. As part of the 2007 amendments to FRCP 19, the word "necessary” was replaced with "required” in subparagraph (a), and the term “indispensable” was deleted from subpara-graph (b), for being at once redundant and con-clusory. See Advisory Committee’s Notes on 2007 Amendment to FRCP 19. The current version to RCFC 19 follows suit. Many courts, however, including the Rosales IX court, have continued to use the label of "necessary and indispensable,” in referring to a party whose joinder is required under Rule 19(a), but who cannot be joined, and without whom the court decides, pursuant to Rule 19(b), that it cannot proceed. This court prefers to follow the current language of the rule. However, the significance of the Rosales IX opinion to this court's present holding counsels in favor of using the language of "necessary and indispensable party," lest dif
. Remarkably, in arguing that issue preclusion should not bar their claims, plaintiffs cite cases from the Sixth, Eighth, and Ninth Circuits, wliose precedent is not binding upon this court, while failing to cite a single Federal Circuit case, concerning the effect or scope of issue preclusion. See Rosales X, Pis.' Opp'n at 40-44.
. This court disagrees, however, with the jurisdictional label that the Rosales IX court attached to its determination. See Rosales IX at *5 ("Because the Tribe enjoys sovereign immunity and cannot be joined, the court lacks subject matter jurisdiction.”). Both RCFC 19(b) and FRCP 19(b) (the latter governing the Rosales IX court) state that a court must decide "in equity and
. The court assumes, without deciding, that the Third Amended Complaint qualifies for relation back to the date of the original complaint, under RCFC 15(c)(1). Absent this assumption, of course, the Third Amended Complaint, submitted in 2009, would be even tardier than the original complaint in Rosales X.
