Minchumina Natives, Inc. v. United States Department of the Interior

MEMORANDUM *

The district court dismissed the suit brought by Minchumina Natives, Inc. (“MNI”) against the Department of the Interior (“Interior”) on the ground that MNI lacked the capacity to sue because the state of Alaska had involuntarily dissolved the corporation. On appeal, MNI 1 argues that it now has the capacity to sue because (1) its corporate status was reinstated by the state after the district court issued its decision, and (2) the reinstatement was pursuant to a state statute that applies the corporation’s newly reinstated status retroactively. We have taken judicial notice of a Certificate of Reinstatement and a Certificate of Amendment: Name Change, while declining to grant MNI’s motion to change its name for purposes of this suit or otherwise to decide the certificates’ legal effect. Because the record presented to us remains incomplete in several critical respects, we remand this case so the district court can determine the capacity question in light of the purported reinstatement. To do so, the court will need to answer at least five questions, set forth in the course of this disposition.

I.

Shortly after Interior moved to dismiss MNI’s suit, some Minchumina…