By Bill Donovan |Special to Navajo Times
T he fact that a non-Indian company no longer does business on the Navajo Reservation does not mean that the Navajo Nation courts do not have jurisdiction over disputes that arise during the time it operated here.
That’s the basis of a Navajo Nation Supreme Court decision that was made public this week.
The case involves three non-Indian companies – Neptune Leasing, Mountain States Petroleum Corporation and Nacogdoches Oil and Gas, Inc. – which operated a helium plant at various times on the Navajo Reservation.
Neptune came in control of the plant at some time from a company not involved with the suit and then sold it to Mountain States who later sold it to Nacogdoches.
The sale to Neptune, according to the supreme court decision, was very nebulous – the company could not produce a lease or any document showing it had ownership of the improvements made on the plant.
