United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Nat'l Farmers Union Ins. v. Crow Tribe, 468 U.S. 1315 (1984)

National Farmers Union Insurance Companies v.

Crow Tribe of Indians

No. A-123 (84-320)

Decided September 10, 1984

468 U.S. 1315

Syllabus

On application to stay the Court of Appeals' mandate, which reversed the District Court's judgment enjoining respondent Crow Tribe of Indians from executing on the Crow Tribal Court's default judgment against applicant School District -- the District Court having held that the Tribal Court lacked subject matter jurisdiction of an action brought against the School District by respondent schoolchild (a Crow Indian) for personal injuries sustained on the School District's land located within the Crow Indian Reservation---a temporary stay that was granted earlier by the Circuit Justice is continued pending this Court's disposition of applicants' petition for certiorari. It appears (1) that four Members of this Court will vote to grant certiorari to review the question whether the Court of Appeals was correct in holding that litigants, seeking to challenge an Indian tribal court's exercise of jurisdiction in a civil action, have no federal court remedy, and (2) that applicants have a reasonable probability for success on the merits with regard to such issue. This Court's Rule 44.2, requiring that a supersedeas bond accompany the motion for a stay "[i]f the stay is to act as a supersedeas," is not applicable here, since the federal court proceedings did not seek direct review of the Tribal Court judgment, but instead sought only collateral relief.