Now, the company has also lost its appeal in a civil case (California Parking Services Inc. v. Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians) that claimed the tribe backed out of the contract in June 2009, well before the company’s three-year contract was up.

California Parking Services had said it tried to compel arbitration in accordance with its agreement with the tribe after its contract was voided. The tribe said no, citing tribal sovereignty. The Riverside County Superior Court sided with the tribe. On July 20, so did the state Court of Appeal.

The contract California Parking Services had notably omitted rule 48(c) of the Commercial Arbitration Rules and Mediation Procedures of the American Arbitration Association. That rule would have given the state and federal courts the jurisdiction to award a judgment. Without it, the arbitration clause in the agreement was essentially pointless.

A reminder for businesses doing business with tribes, according to a quote from another case cited in the appellate decision: “As a matter of federal law, an Indian tribe is subject to suit only where Congress has authorized the suit or the tribe has waived its (sovereign]) immunity.”

There have been some cases where a tribe gave up that sovereign immunity in the language of its contracts, but that didn’t happen in this case, according to the decision.

“Whether the arbitration clause in (another case) incorporated the
entirety of the Arbitration Rules of the American Arbitration Association, the Soboba Band’s clause in its contract with CPS explicitly excluded … the rule granting federal or state court consent to enter judgment upon the arbitration award.”

The tribe’s chairman, Robert Salgado, in the meantime, has pled guilty to accepting $875,000 worth of bribes from California Parking Services and four other companies in exchange for contracts.

From The Press-Enterprise of the Inland Empire