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Judge Rejects Contempt Motion in Coal Lawsuit
Washington, D.C.âU.S. Court of Federal Claims
Judge Lawrence Baskir has
issued a ruling rejecting the motion by Peabody Coal Company (and
its
affiliate companies) to hold the Navajo Nation and its counsel
in violation
of a confidentiality and protective order (CAPO) issued by that
Court, under
which the Nation had obtained documents demonstrating wrongdoing
by Peabody.
The documents were provided to the Navajo Nation during discovery
in its case
against the United States arising from the approval of coal lease
amendments
between the Navajo Nation and Peabody.
Judge Baskir recounted, in the course of his opinion, the
delaying
tactics used by Peabody to resist turning over documents to both
the U.S.
Government and the Navajo Nation in the Claims Court litigation.
Among those
documents was what the judge characterized as an âincriminating
memorandumâ
that described Peabodyâs hiring a close personal
friend of Interior Secretary
Donald Hodel to intervene secretly with Hodel on Peabodyâs
behalf.
The Navajo Nationâs counsel acknowledged
that this âincriminating
memorandumâ had been used in the sealed complaint
filed by the Nation against
Peabody and other defendants in February 1999, seeking damages
arising out of
the coal lease amendment activities.
Peabody argued that the use of this document violated the
Court of
Federal Claims CAPO. Peabody had also unsuccessfully sought dismissal
of the
Navajo Nationâs private litigation against it
on this same theory. Finding
that, while the âstatusâ of
this âincriminating memorandumâ
under the CAPO
was âanomalous,â any claim
of privilege attached to it had been abandoned or
waived by Peabody, the Court held that, in any event, the Navajo
Nation had
âsubstantially compliedâ with
the CAPO.
Navajo Nation Attorney General Levon B. Henry observed: âThis
latest
ruling vindicates the Nation against charges that it violated
a court order.
It keeps our damage action against Peabody Coal Company and other
codefendants on target, since the Court found that our actions
in that case
did not violate the CAPO. And it once again chronicles...Peabody
Coal
Companyâs efforts to keep the Navajo Nation
from learning about and
redressing Peabodyâs violations of our rights.â
The February 27, 2000 opinion of the Court of Federal Claims
on the issue of
liability of the U.S. Government can be found at
http://www.contracts.ogc.doc.gov/fedcl/opinions/2000opin/93-763L.html
The March 31, 2000 opinion of the Court of Federal Claims on
the issue of
contempt and asserted violation of the CAPO can be found at
http://www.contracts.ogc.doc.gov/fedcl/opinions/2000opin/93-763L-I.html
© 2000 All original content © copyright Verde Valley Newspapers, Inc.