FMC Corp. v. Shoshone-Bannock Tribes

FMC Corporation (plaintiff) owned and operated an elemental-phosphorus-production plant on fee land within the Shoshone-Bannock Fort Hall Reservation for 52 years. Fee lands are lands located on an Indian reservation but owned by an individual or entity outright, often a non-Indian. FMC’s operations produced approximately 22 million tons of hazardous waste that was stored on the reservation. The waste was poisonous, radioactive, and carcinogenic. In 1990, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared the FMC plant to be a National Priority List Superfund site under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act. The list identified the nation’s most hazardous waste sites. In 1997, the EPA charged FMC with violating the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The EPA negotiated a consent decree with FMC that would allow FMC to pay a substantial fine to the EPA rather than engage in protracted litigation that was likely to result in liability for a significantly higher amount in damages. However, a condition of the consent decree was that FMC had to obtain a permit from the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes (tribes) (defendants) for the storage of hazardous waste on the reservation. FMC and the tribes negotiated an agreement under which FMC was to pay the tribes $1.5 million per year for the necessary permit. FMC paid the fee from 1998 to 2001. However, once FMC ceased active plant operations in 2002, it refused make any further payments. The waste remained on the reservation. The tribes sued FMC in tribal court and the court held that FMC owed $19.5 million in unpaid permit fees for 2002 to 2014 and $1.5 million in annual permit fees going forward. After the tribal court issued its decision, FMC sued the tribes in federal district court, seeking a declaration that the tribal court lacked jurisdiction because FMC was not a tribe member and that the court’s judgment was therefore unenforceable. The district court held in the tribes’ favor, concluding that the tribal court had jurisdiction. FMC appealed.