Cobell trust accounting trial is set for Oct. 10

Posted: April 27, 2007
by: Jerry Reynolds / Indian Country Today

WASHINGTON - The new judge in the class action lawsuit over the Individual Indian Money accounts waded into the case publicly April 20, ordering a trial that will begin Oct. 10 ''and continue as long as necessary.''

U.S. District Judge James Robertson will review the methodology and results of the Interior Department's accounting process in open court, with plaintiffs on-hand to test or challenge both. The accounting proceeds from a court finding of 1999, in the case now known as Cobell v. Kempthorne, that the Interior Department had not complied with IIM accounting requirements assigned by Congress in the Indian Trust Management Reform Act of 1994. Robertson expects the trial to demonstrate, among other things, whether the IIM accounting Interior has performed so far has fulfilled, or is fulfilling, the 1994 mandates of Congress; whether the defendants have ''unreasonably delayed'' the accounting; and whether ''further relief, if any, should be ordered.''


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