Small civil-rights law firm wins reversal of $282K sanction
A small civil-rights law firm in Minnesota has won reversal of a $281,900 sanction imposed by a federal judge who found its claims in a Native American land rights case to be “completely frivolous.”
The St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Minneapolis attorney Erick Kaardal and his firm, Mohrman, Kaardal & Erickson, on the sanctions issue in a June 1 opinion, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.
“Federal Indian law is complex” and the issues in the case “are far from clear cut,” the 8th Circuit said. “Appellants and their counsel have made good-faith, nonfrivolous arguments distinguishing, calling for modifications, or seeking extensions of existing law. We, therefore, conclude the district court abused its discretion when it imposed sanctions.”
Despite the reversal on sanctions, the 8th Circuit ruled against Kaardal when it upheld dismissal of the case filed on behalf of a group of descendants of the Mdewakanton Sioux Indians. The suit says the Native Americans never received land promised as a reward for siding with the United States in an 1862 uprising.
