California COA Affirms Immunity of Tribally-Owned Payday Lenders

Here are the materials in People of the State of California v. MNE:

B242644_Opinion

California Opening Brief

MNE Brief

California Reply Brief

An excerpt from the opinion:

Applying the arm-of-the-tribe analysis as we directed in Ameriloan v. Superior Court (2008) 169 Cal.App.4th 81 (Ameriloan), the trial court dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction this action by the Commissioner of the California Department of Corporations against five “payday loan” businesses owned by Miami Nation Enterprises (MNE), the economic development authority of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, a federally recognized Indian tribe, and SFS, Inc., a corporation wholly owned by the Santee Sioux Nation, also a federally recognized Indian tribe. Because the two tribal entities and their cash-advance and short-term-loan businesses are sufficiently related to their respective Indian tribes to be protected from this state enforcement action under the doctrine of tribal sovereign immunity, we affirm.

A second related opinion from the same court:

B236547_Opinion

An excerpt:

The Commissioner of the California Department of Corporations (Commissioner),1 on behalf of the People of the State of California, sued Ameriloan, United Cash Loans, US Fast Cash, Preferred Cash and One Click Cash for injunctive relief, restitution and civil penalties, alleging they were providing short-term, payday loans over the Internet to California residents in violation of several provisions of the California Deferred Deposit Transaction Law (DDTL) (Fin. Code, § 2300 et seq.). Miami Nation Enterprises (MNE), the economic development authority of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, a federally recognized Indian tribe, and SFS, Inc., a corporation wholly owned by the Santee Sioux Nation, also a federally recognized Indian tribe, specially appeared and moved to quash service of summons and to dismiss the complaint on the ground the lending businesses named as defendants were simply trade names used by the two tribal entities and, as wholly owned and controlled entities of their respective tribes operating on behalf of the tribes, they were protected from this state enforcement action under the doctrine of tribal sovereign immunity.

During the course of this litigation on the issue of subject matter jurisdiction, the trial court imposed $34,437.50 in discovery sanctions against the Commissioner after the court denied in substantial part her motion to compel further responses to a second set of requests for production of documents from MNE and SFS. We affirm.

3 thoughts on “California COA Affirms Immunity of Tribally-Owned Payday Lenders

  1. Richard Monette January 22, 2014 / 3:25 pm

    And how long do we think we get to have this cake and eat it too? Any longer than the last one? Or the one before that? This is a sheep-in-wolf’s-clothing invitation from the courts to Congress to use its “plenty power” — not authority, mind you, but power — to whittle Native nation’s sovereign immunity, and sovereignty, some more. And if Congress doesn’t do it, then on deck will be the current judicially-active Supreme Court — even worse.

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