ELR Citation: ELR 20045
No(s). 04-5131 (10th Cir. Feb 22, 2006)

The court affirms the denial of the Quapaw Indian Tribe's motion to dismiss companies' counterclaims against it in a suit alleging that the companies and their predecessors-in-interest caused environmental contamination on tribal lands due to mining activities in the 1900s. Because a tribe waives its sovereign immunity as to counterclaims sounding in recoupment by filing suit, and because the companies' counterclaims for common-law contribution and indemnity are claims in recoupment, the tribe's motion was properly dismissed.