In a 20-page order, U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson recently granted the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed in April by the city of Duluth, Minnesota. The city sought to block the tribe from having the adjacent Carter Hotel, owned by the tribe, placed in trust to expand its downtown Fond-du-Luth Casino. The expansion would be exempt from local property taxes and zoning.
Fond du Lac Band Chairwoman Karen Diver said, “The band is pleased with the latest ruling. The courts continue to rule that the various agreements related to the Fond-du-Luth Casino are illegal under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. The city has another opportunity to focus its attention on repairing its relationship with the band, rather than on misguided litigation and harmful public rhetoric.”
The legal battle between Duluth and the tribe began in 2009, when the tribe stopped paying the city $6 million in annual casino revenues under a 1994 profit-sharing agreement. The National Indian Gaming Commission supported tribe and ordered it to not make any future payments to Duluth, which has challenged the NIGC ruling and has continued to seek back payments from the tribe.
City attorneys argued in the recently dismissed lawsuit that the tribe breached a 1986 agreement by seeking to place the Carter Hotel land into trust without first getting the city’s approval. The city requested a temporary halt to keep the U.S. Department of Interior from acting on the tribe’s request.
The tribe argued that the city’s approval is not needed for land to be taken into trust and that the Interior Department should exercise primary jurisdiction over the city’s challenge to the trust application. Nelson agreed with the Fond du Lac.
