Meeting on Pelt vs. Utah suit Saturday

By Brian Hassler
Staff Writer

BLUFF — Information on a lawsuit over a decade in the making that could be worth up to $150 million will be available to the public on Saturday, Feb. 18 in Bluff, Utah.

The case of Pelt vs. The State of Utah, a case that has the Navajo Nation protesting Utah's use of the money from oil wells that were drilled in San Juan County. 37.5 percent of that money was to be put in a trust account that would go to the Navajo Nation.

The wells were drilled in 1933 and the deal agreed upon by both sides was that the Navajo Nation would receive almost 40 percent of the profits, but it's a deal that lawyers for the Navajo Nation feel the state hasn't kept.

"This lawsuit has been set up as a class action suit on behalf of all Navajos," said Brian Barnard, the attorney representing the Navajo Nation. "In the 1950's, oil came in and the state of Utah didn't take it seriously and didn't handle it professionally. By the mid-50's over $62 million had been put into the trust fund and the state didn't bother to set up an agency to manage it."

By 1962 a lawsuit had been filed that protested the ways the money in the Navajo Nation trust fund was handled and in 1968 the federal government expanded the number of Navajos being represented in the suit from 8,000 to all Navajos in San Juan County.

In 1977, another lawsuit was filed that pointed to a lack of proper financial management and that case was completed in 1978. Over the next 12 years complaints came from the Navajo Nation concerning the trust fund and in 1990 the Utah State Legislature requested an audit on the trust fund.

"He looked at the fund and the report he wrote said that the state was mismanaging the trust fund," said Barnard. "That led us up to the case of Pelt vs. Utah, and that was filed in 1992. It was a class action filed on behalf of all Navajos, and we want the state to account for the money in the trust fund."

Pelt vs. Utah is requesting documentation that will show the money due the account is there and that the money spent on behalf of the trust fund was spent properly. The state, Barnard alleges, hasn't yet shown that the trust fund is receiving the agreed upon 37.5 percent and that it has refused to provide the requested documents.

"The state is fighting us tooth and nail and has put up hurdle after hurdle," said Barnard. "Early on, in 1995, the case was dismissed, and we appealed, and it was eventually reversed. Last month a major decision came that told the state that past requests for documentation on prior cases didn't mean we couldn't receive it in this case."

"Because the accounting was never prepared or submitted, the state couldn't hold that against us, and that was a major hurdle that the state put up," Barnard added.

Accountants have added what the Navajo Nation could be owed and came up with $150 million, said Barnard but the numbers won't be exact until the exact documentation is provided.

Calls to the state's attorneys and trust fund managers were not returned.

The meeting in Bluff, which will begin at 2 p.m. at the Desert Rose Hotel located on 701 West Main in Bluff will allow the public to ask questions of Barnard and learn of the status of the lawsuit.

"As attorneys representing a class in a class action suit, we have to meet with our class members once or twice a year and answer questions about what is going on and what will happen next," said Barnard.

— Brian Hassler is The Independent's Four Corners reporter based in Shiprock. Contact him at (505) 360-7862 or via email at brianhassler@hotmail.com