Julia Nicodemus and R. H. Spencer v. Washington Water Power Company, a Corporation, United States of America

We are required in this case to determine the validity of an order of the United States District Court for the District of Idaho, decreeing condemnation of an easement for the construction and maintenance of an electric transmission line over and along a portion of a designated 40 acre tract of land in Idaho which was allotted in severalty to appellant Julia Nicodemus, an enrolled member of the Coeur d’Alene Indian Tribe, the title to which tract of land is held in trust for appellant by the United States.

The appellant is a privately owned public utility corporation, lawfully doing business in the State of Idaho as a public utility engaged in the distribution of electric energy to the public, and is duly authorized under and by virtue of the laws of the State of Idaho to exercise the right of eminent domain in the State of Idaho.

The appellee joined as defendants in the proceeding below the United States of America, the appellant, and R. H. Spencer, a farmer tenant on the property. The United States is an indispensable party to a suit to establish or acquire an interest in allotted Indian land held under a trust patent, and such a suit must be instituted and maintained in the…