City of Klawock v. George E. M. Gustafson, Trustee for the Townsite of Klawock

Following litigation by the City of Kla-wock to acquire title to certain vacant lots, the City applied for attorney fees. The district court denied the application, and the City appeals.

Klawock is an incorporated city on Prince of Wales Island in southeastern Alaska. Land for Alaska city development was reserved for territorial townsites in 1927, in accordance with the Native Townsite Act of the previous year, 43 U.S.C. § 735 , and the general Alaska townsite legislation, 48 U.S.C. § 355 . Klawock’s townsite was surveyed and partially subdivided by 1940, and the statutory townsite trustee received a patent in 1941. The trustee in due course conveyed title to persons who had occupied subdivided lots.

Subdivision of the townsite was completed on July 30, 1974, and the trustee decided to issue deeds to the occupants of the newly-subdivided lots. The city objected because the occupants of fourteen of the lots were not natives, and because the trustee, following a 1959 Interior Department Deputy Solicitor’s opinion concerning another townsite (Saxman) declined to deed the city the 333 unoccupied lots. Elsewhere in the United States, municipalities were entitled to all unoccupied…