Court Upholds $3.4 Billion Native American Deal
US News • 5/22/12 11:42:14 am • Views: 355
An appeals court on Tuesday upheld a $3.4 billion settlement of a class-action lawsuit over mismanagement of government trust funds for hundreds of thousands of Native Americans, ruling that it was fair, reasonable and adequate.
The settlement resolved a lawsuit filed in 1996 claiming the U.S. Department of the Interior had mismanaged funds held in trust on behalf of Native Americans. The trust money was from transactions involving land allotted to individual Native Americans under an 1887 law.
The proposed settlement initially was reached in December 2009, ratified by Congress the following year and received final approval from a federal judge about a year ago.
