Top Plaintiffs' Verdict by Dollar: Wells Fargo Bank NA v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians

In a decision illustrating the shifting attitudes towards Indian tribes and the gambling revenues produced by reservation casinos, lawyers with Browne George Ross LLP won a $62 million verdict in October for Wells Fargo Bank NA.

The plaintiffs' attorneys were able to overcome the defense's attempts to both throw the entire case out and to reduce the amount owed significantly.

The suit, brought against the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians in conjunction with their development of the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino, was decided in Wells Fargo's favor despite protests by the tribe's attorneys that reduced gambling revenues in the wake of the 2008 recession made the initial $57 million note - later reduced to $41 million - impossible to pay back. Wells Fargo Bank NA v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, 13-JV2517 (Riverside Super. Ct., filed 2012).

According to Eric George and Ira G. Bibbero, Wells Fargo's attorneys, the case shows courts' willingness to hold tribes accountable in complex business deals, a change from past disputes in which federal law was often invoked to prevent tribes from adverse decisions.

Now that tribes possess resources to hire top-flight attorneys and structure complex deals on their own terms, George and Bibbero said judges have been less inclined to rule in favor of tribes that invoke sovereign immunity doctrines or proprietary interest.

"This ruling demonstrates and emphasizes that tribes are extraordinarily sophisticated and well-advised when entering into these types of transactions," George said. "They will be held to the stipulations of the agreements and won't be able to get out of them by invoking sovereign immunity doctrines or proprietary interest as they may have in the past."

Sheldon Eisenberg, the tribe's attorney and a partner at Drinker, Biddle & Reath LLP said the verdict has been appealed, though court battles continue over the status of a sizeable bond the tribe would have to post in order to continue the litigation.

- HENRY MEIER

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