Marx E. Angle v. United States

This is an interlocutory appeal presenting jurisdictional and liability issues in an action seeking shares of a $29.1 million judgment arising out of a settlement of land claims of certain groups of California Indians. We find jurisdiction, although on a different ground from that adopted by the trial court, but we reverse the court’s finding of liability.

I. Facts.

Appellees are Native American Indians who allege that they have been denied their rightful shares of a $29.1 million settlement of land claims against the United States, the appellant. The settlement was between the United States and certain groups of California Indians who asserted that their land had been taken from them illegally, and was entered in 1964 by the Indian Claims Commission as a “final Determination or Judgment,” Thompson v. United States, 1964, 13 Ind.Cl.Comm. 369. Congress appropriated funds for the judgment in 1964, Pub.L. 88-635, ch. XI, 78 Stat. 1023 , 1033, but did not specify procedures for paying out the money. For that purpose, a Distribution Act was enacted on September 21, 1968, 25 U.S.C. §§ 659-663 , Pub.L. 90-507, 82 Stat. 860. The 1968 Act authorized the Secretary of the Interior to…