Sovereign immunity has saved the
Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe from being included in a missing horse lawsuit in Nevada.
As part of the
case, Colleen Westlake claimed the tribe wrongly rounded up her horse earlier this month. But the tribe can't be sued without its consent, Judge Miranda Du determined on Monday, The Reno Gazette-Journal reported.
“The sovereign immunity doctrine is very broad, it doesn’t really matter what the facts are,” Du said in court, the paper reported. For the same immunity reasons, she removed the state of Nevada from the lawsuit.
The decision, however, does not affect a
temporary restraining order which bars the slaughter of any horses that were rounded up on the reservation. It's possible that Westlake's horse, named Lady, is among those in the custody of other defendants in the lawsuit.
“I’m just so devastated, honestly," Westlake told the paper.
The horses that were rounded up this month have been sent to New Mexico, according to the American Wild Horse Campaign. The group is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
"The overall goal of our lawsuit is to recover the horses and to hold the Tribe and the Nevada Department of Agriculture accountable for violating Nevada law, including trespass on private property and failure to notify residents of the pending roundup of the horses, who qualify as feral under state law," the
group said after the hearing on Monday.
The tribe conducted the roundup in order to address the impacts of wild horses on the reservation, KTVN reported.
Read More on the Story
Federal judge dismisses claims against tribe stemming from horse roundup
(The Reno Gazette-Journal January 29, 2019)
Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe Conducting Round Up of Feral Horses
(KTVN January 7, 2019)
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