Bill favoring tribal court money judgments becomes law

Bill favoring tribal court money judgments becomes law

Wednesday August 9th

By Malcolm Maclachlan

Daily Journal Staff Writer

SACRAMENTO- Gov. Jerry Brown OK'd a bill ensur­ing that money judgments in tribal courts are enforce­able in California state court.

In a strange twist, AB 905 was signed on Monday, the same day a man who fought a lonely, unsuccess­ful battle to stop the bill prevailed in his legal case in tribal court.

The bill represents the culmination of years of work by California tribes and their legal advocates. It modifies and removes a sunset date on a 2014 law called the Tribal Court Civil Money Judgment Act. AB 905 was sponsored by the Judicial Council and supported by several California Indian tribes and organizations.

Prior to the enactment of the 2014 law, according to a Judicial Council support letter, "a party seeking recognition of a civil tribal court money judgment in a state superior court had to do so under the Uniform Foreign-Country Money Judgments Recognition Act, a time consuming and expensive procedure."

The bill didn't receive a single no vote on its way through the state Legislature. At hearings, the opposition consisted of one man. James Akers runs a San Diego company called Acres Bonusing Inc., which provides software for slot machines.

Akers said he supports tribal courts and continues to do business with several tribes. But he also claims the bill does not properly account for the fact that tribes can encompass both governments and large business ventures, sometimes run by the same people.

In January 2016, Akers and his company were sued for alleged fraud and breach of contract by the Blue Lake Rancheria in relation to a 2010 business deal.

The venue was the Humboldt County casino tribe's own court. Akers contends he was deprived of due process on several grounds, including that the judge in the case was also the tribe's longtime attorney.

"It's very unsettling to see California law say that I can be deprived of due process, and yet still see that judgment enforced against me," Akers told the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 13.

Current law provides for several situations in which a superior court judge can reject a judgment in a tribal or foreign court. These include judgments obtained by fraud or without proper notice, or decided on grounds "repugnant" to domestic laws.

Under an amendment added to AB 905 in March, however, a superior court judge can still accept a tribal court judgment that violates one of these principles if the party seeking the judgment "demonstrates good reason."

What this means in practice, Akers said, is that the tribe could have succeeded in getting a state court to uphold a judgment of hundreds of thousands of dollars against him, despite serious issues with the original proceeding.

Akers also sued the tribe in federal court over the due process claim. U.S. District Judge William Orrick granted the tribe summary judgment in February. Akers v. Blue Lake Rancheria, 16-CV05391 (N.D. Cal., filed Sept. 20, 2016).

But the federal case still provided Akers with a key victory. According to court documents, the original judge who was going to hear the case in tribal court recused himself after Orrick ordered him to provide billing records for previous legal work for the tribe.

The Blue Lake tribe then hired a private judge to hear the case. Akers' attorney, Ronald H. Blumberg with Blumberg Law Group LLP in Solano Beach, said he was able to convince that judge in July to dismiss the individual claim against Akers, leaving Acres Bonusing as the only named defendant.

On Monday, he and the tribe's at­torneys signed a stipulation that the tribe would drop the entire case.

"I think they realized it was going to cost them way too much to chase nothing," Blumberg said.

Calls and emails to the Blue Lake Rancheria were not returned. Attempts to reach the tribe's attorneys and the original tribal court judge were unsuccessful.

malcolm_maclachlan@dailyjournal.com