Campo Band of Mission Indians v. Superior Court

The Campo Band of Mission Indians (the Tribe) entered into a compact with the State of California (the State) relating to its operation of gambling facilities in the State (the Compact); in the Compact, the Tribe agreed to comply with certain standards relating to public health and safety at its facilities, to maintain certain public liability insurance for personal injury claims by patrons injured at the facilities and to adopt a tort liability ordinance setting forth the terms and conditions under which it would waive its sovereign immunity relating to such claims and the procedures for processing those claims. The Tribe adopted a regulation that requires a claimant to comply with certain procedures and, subject to such compliance, provides for arbitration of the patron’s claim.

Here, the Tribe concluded that an injured patron failed to comply with the procedural prerequisites to arbitration and refused to participate in arbitration of her claim; the patron filed this action seeking to compel arbitration, which the superior court granted. The fundamental issue in this case is whether the superior court had subject matter jurisdiction to order the Tribe to arbitration.…