Congressionally Approved Settlement Seen As Fair End to Lengthy Indian Trust Dispute

A practical, congressionally approved settlement will not be set aside as violating the requirements of Fed. R. Civ. P. 23 or due process in a case involving the Department of Interior’s management of Individual Indian Money trust accounts, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held May 22 (Cobell v. Salazar, D.C. Cir., No. 11-5205).

Class objector Kimberly Craven’s claim that the settlement potentially under-compensated selected class members was undermined by the fact that the historical accounting performed by Interior had only shown minor trust accounting errors, Judge Judith W. Rogers said in her opinion for the ...