laches

What happened

Laches is an equitable rule that bars a claim when a party waits too long and others have relied on that delay. For Native nations, it has become a way courts limit land claims even when the underlying wrong is not disputed.

In City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation (2005), the Oneidas bought parcels of former reservation land on the open market and argued that this revived their sovereignty over them, so that the city could not tax them. The Court did not disturb its holding in Oneida II that tribes have a right of action for unlawful conveyances. But it held that "the distance from 1805 to the present day, the Oneidas' long delay in seeking equitable relief against New York or its local units, and developments in the city of Sherrill spanning several generations, evoke the doctrines of laches, acquiescence, and impossibility." Those factors, it said, "render inequitable the piecemeal shift in governance this suit seeks unilaterally to initiate."

The Second Circuit then applied the reasoning to a possessory land claim in Cayuga Indian Nation of New York v. Pataki (2005). It wrote that Sherrill "ruled that equitable doctrines such as laches, acquiescence, and impossibility can be applied to Indian land claims in appropriate circumstances," and concluded the Cayuga plaintiffs' claim "is barred by laches" and reversed a judgment of about $248 million.

The Indian Claims Commission Act, by contrast, allowed claims to be heard notwithstanding any statute of limitations or laches.

Good to know. Sherrill concerned the Oneidas' attempt to revive sovereignty and tax immunity over land they bought back, not title to that land.

Summarized with AI assistance from 4 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error