Cynthia Lopez v. Eric Quaempts, et al.

In an attempt to immunize a tribe and its employees from liability, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (“the Tribe”) ratified the tortious actions of two tribal employees. Plaintiff Lopez claimed in her California state court complaint these employees’ actions to be fraudulent and outside the scope of their employment authority. The California courts took notice of the Tribe’s ratification of the employees’ purportedly tortious acts, but denied any legal significance. The questions presented are:

1. Whether this Court, to allow for more complete state court tort remedies against individual tribal employees, as indicated in Lewis v. Clarke, 137 S. Ct. 1285 (2017), should clarify existing tribal sovereign immunity law to allow tort victims to sue a tribe based on vicarious liability when a tribe ratifies individual tribal employees’ actions giving rise to the state tort claims.

2. Whether the lower court’s refusal to recognize a tribe’s ratification of tribal employees’ allegedly tortious acts, as an express waiver of sovereign immunity impermissibly interferes with states’ rights to award remedies to tort victims.