9th Circuit says tribal court has jurisdiction over COVID suit
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The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that a tribal court in Washington state has jurisdiction over a dispute concerning coverage for business and tax revenue losses stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
A three-judge panel wrote in Lexington Insurance Co. v. Cindy Smith et al. that the Suquamish Tribal Court had jurisdiction over the tribe’s breach of contract claim because the programs offered by insurers were tailored to and offered exclusively to Native American tribes.
The panel also said that under an exception in the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1981 ruling in Montana v. United States, the tribe has sovereign authority over consensual relationships with nonmembers on reservation lands.
Beginning in 2015, the Suquamish Tribe obtained policies from Lexington and other insurers that provided coverage for almost $242 million worth of real property and $50 million worth of personal property, as well as $98 million in coverage for business interruption losses. The policies were offered under the Tribal Party Insurance Program, court records show.
The tribe and Port Madison Reservation sued Lexington and a number of other insurers in Suquamish Tribal Court after the denial of its claim for business and tax revenue losses stemming from government shutdown orders implemented in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Suquamish Tribal Court denied the insurers’ motion to dismiss the suit and the decision was upheld by the Suquamish Tribal Court of Appeals.
The insurers then filed suit in federal court in Seattle in December 2021, seeking a determination that the tribal court lacked jurisdiction. The parties filed competing motions for summary judgment, and the court agreed with the tribe that its court had jurisdiction over the dispute.
The parties and their representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
