Region: Tribes and state seek to intervene in MGM casino lawsuit

Mashantuckets, Mohegans still in court battle with Interior

In a court filing with “Catch-22” overtones, the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes and the State of Connecticut claim they should be allowed to intervene in MGM Resorts International’s latest lawsuit over the East Windsor casino project while also contending their sovereign immunity prevents them from being added to the suit.

Given the dilemma, they say, the case should be dismissed.

The arguments are laid out in the filing this week in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, where MGM Resorts is suing the U.S. Department of the Interior for approving amendments to the tribes’ gaming agreements with the state. The approvals seemingly paved the way for the casino-owning tribes to build a “satellite” facility in East Windsor, where it would compete against MGM Resorts’ year-old resort casino in Springfield, Mass.

Earlier this month, the Interior Department asked the suit be dismissed.

The tribes and the state claim they are “necessary parties” to MGM’s suit and “as sovereigns, are all immune from suit and cannot be joined.”

“Because this case cannot proceed in equity and good conscience without the Tribes and State, the Court should dismiss Plaintiffs’ Complaint with prejudice,” the latest filing says.

The filing cites “Rule 19,” which establishes a three-step process for determining whether an action must be dismissed because it fails to include a “required” party. First, the

court must determine whether the party is required for “a just adjudication.” Second, it must determine whether adding the required party is “feasible,” and, third, if the required party cannot be feasibly added, the court must consider whether the suit can proceed in “equity and good conscience.”

“If not, the case must be dismissed,” the filing says.

The tribes and the state contend they are “indispensable” to the suit because of the effect its outcome could have on their property interests. The gaming agreements at the core of the suit spell out revenue-sharing terms specifying that the tribes must pay a portion of their casinos’ slot-machine revenues to the state.

Amendments to the agreements specify that the tribes also would share the East Windsor casino’s gaming revenues with the state.

MGM’s suit, brought in August, came after the surfacing of a legislative proposal calling for the tribes to invest in a Bridgeport casino project. The tribes backed the proposal and at the same time reaffirmed their commitment to the East Windsor project.

Gov. Ned Lamont indicated at one point that he believed the tribes should abandon the East Windsor project and instead focus on a Bridgeport project.

Under the U.S. Constitution, states are immune from suit, “absent consent or waiver,” the latest filing notes. “Similarly, it has long been recognized that Indian tribes are immune from suit absent unequivocal waiver or abrogation by Congress. … That immunity applies even where a suit arises from a tribe’s commercial activities off Indian lands.”

The East Windsor casino, a commercial rather than tribal venture, would be built on nontribal lands.

“Catch-22” is the title of a satirical war novel written by Joseph Heller and published in 1961. It features a series of absurd paradoxes.