# Dilliner v. Seneca-Cayuga Tribe

> Supreme Court of Oklahoma · June 28, 2011 · 258 P.3d 516

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9775185

## Case

- **Full name:** Jerry R. DILLINER, Darlene Boyd, Gary Crow, Katie L. Fisher, Jacob Althouse, James Davis, Margaret Davis, Troy D. Dry, Lindy Flickinger, Cody A. Fisher, Shandrea D. Housman, Linda C. Judd, Roxann Kinsey, Elizabeth Lewis, Kirk Postoak, Jamie T. Quick, Janice Quick, Jeremy Quick, Sammy Quick, Albert Ty Slaughter, Caleb J. Slaughter, Sandra L. Slaughter, Dustin Spicer, Louis Spicer, Sherry L. Spicer, Gary Toland, Jordana N. Tyron, and Mark Woods, Appellants, v. SENECA-CAYUGA TRIBE of Oklahoma, Appellee
- **Court:** Supreme Court of Oklahoma
- **Decided:** June 28, 2011
- **Citations:** 258 P.3d 516; 32 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 923; 2011 OK 61; 2011 Okla. LEXIS 62; 2011 WL 2557022
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Dissent by Taylor
- **Judges:** Taylor, Colbert, Kauger, Winchester, Edmondson, Reif, Combs, Gurich, Watt
- **Cited by:** 22 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9775185

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- concluding that tribe’s constitution required that tribe’s business committee pass resolutions to expressly consent to a waiver of immunity, but resolutions at issue only authorized the chief to enter employment contracts and did not authorize waiver of immunity
- rejecting equitable theories as basis for waiver; where tribal council authorized Chief to execute contracts, but not waive immunity, express waivers in those contracts were not effective

## Opinion text

1 24 TAYLOR, C.J.,
dissenting.
There is a waiver of sovereign immunity that has now become inconvenient to the tribe. The tribe now wants to back out of an agreement it made with its own employees. After examining all the cireumstances of this case, it is my view that sovereign immunity has been waived.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9775185. Public record. Not legal advice.