Daniel Miller v. Chad Wright

I. BACKGROUND

A. Plaintiffs Matheson, Miller, and Lanphere

Matheson is an enrolled Puyallup Indian who owns a retail store that sells cigarettes. Matheson’s store is located within the Puyallup Indian Reservation. The Tribe operates retail stores in the same vicinity.

Miller is a non-Indian, non-resident of the reservation who purchased cigarettes from Matheson. As a result of the Tribe’s cigarette tax, the price Miller paid for a carton of cigarettes included a $30.00 fee. This $30.00 fee stemmed from the cigarette tax contract (CTC) between the State of

1 In reviewing a district court’s grant of a motion to dismiss, we “accept the factual allegations of the complaint as true and construe them in the light most favorable to the plaintiff.” AE ex rel. Hernandez v. County of Tulare, 666 F.3d 631, 636 (9th Cir. 2012) (citation omitted).

MILLER V . WRIGHT

Washington and the Tribe. The price also included a $5 fee for the benefit of Washington’s public health fund. Washington requires collection of the $5 fee to comply with provisions of the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA), a settlement between the tobacco industry and numerous states, including…