Pawnees sue oil companies in tribal court over quake
OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma-based Native American tribe filed a lawsuit in its own tribal court system Friday accusingcompanies of triggering the state’ s largest earthquake that caused extensive damage to some near century-old tribal buildings.
The Pawnee Nation alleges in the suit that wastewater injected into wells operated by the defendants caused the 5.8-magnitude quake in September and is seeking physical damages to real and personal property, market value losses, as well as punitive damages.
The case will be heard in the tribe’ s district court with a jury composed of Pawnee Nation members.
“We are a sovereign nation, and we have the rule of law here,” said Andrew Knife Chief, the Pawnee Nation’s executive director. “We’ re using our tribal laws, our tribal processes to hold these guys accountable .”
Attorneys representing the 3,200-member tribe in north-central Oklahoma say the lawsuit is the first earthquake-related litigation filed in a tribal court. If an appeal were filed in a jury decision, it could be heard by a five-member tribal Supreme Court, and that decision would be final.
“Usually tribes have their own appellate process, and then, and this surprises a lot of people, there is no appeal from a tribal supreme court,” said Lindsay Robertson, a University of Oklahoma law professor who specializes in Federal Indian Law.
Once a tribal court judgment is finalized, it can be taken to a state district court for enforcement just like any other judgment, Robertson said, but that enforcement action would not subject the judgment to any appeals in statecourt.
Curt Marshall, one of the attorneys representing the Pawnee Nation, said the lawsuit was filed in tribal court primarily so that the Pawnee Nation could assert its sovereignty.
Scientists have linked the dramatic spike in earthquakes in Oklahoma to the underground disposal of wastewater that is a byproduct of oil and gas drilling. Oklahoma Corporation Commission regulators have directed oil and gas producers to either close injection wells or reduce the volume of fluids they inject.
An attorney for Oklahoma City-based Cummings Oil Co., one of the companies named in the suit, declined to comment until they receive and review the filing.