Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 68 Part 1.djvu/613

 68

STAT.]

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PUBLIC LAW 5 5 2 - J U L Y 29, 1954

"That the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Bureau of Mines, and the Navajo Tribe of Indians are authorized to enter into an agreement dated December 1, 1945, entitled 'An agreement severing certain formations from oil and gas leases and substituting new leases as to those formations' and an 'Amending agreement', affecting lands in the Navajo Indian Reservation, New Mexico, copies of which are published in House of Represenatives Document Numbered 212, Eightieth Congress, first session; and said agreements are ratified and approved. If said Navajo Tribe of Indians shall, after investigation, deem the total consideration payable to it by the United States pursuant to such agreement dated December 1, 1945, as amended, to be in any respect less than reasonable, fair, just, and equitable, said tribe shall be entitled within three years after the date of enactment of this Act to institute suit against the United States in the Court of Claims for the recovery of such additional sum, if any, as may be necessary to compensate said tribe for the reasonable, fair, just, and equitable value of all right, interest, and property passing from said tribe to the United States under such agreement, as amended. Jurisdiction is hereby conferred upon the Court of Claims to hear and determine any suit so instituted and to enter final judgment against the United States therein for such sum, if any, in excess of the total consideration payable pursuant to such agreement, as amended, as such court may determine to be necessary to provide consideration in all respects reasonable, fair, just, and equitable: Provided, That interest shall be allowed on such sum at the rate of 4 per centum per annum from October 20, 1947, to the date of payment and no offsets shall be deducted by the court from any sum determined by the court to be a reasonable, fair, just, and equitable consideration for the right, interest, and property passing to the United States under and pursuant to said agreement of December 1, 1945, as amended, and the interest thereon: Provided further, That the foregoing provision relating to interest and offsets shall not extend to any other claim or claims asserted in any such suit, whether or not the same arise out of the subject matter of said agreement, but such other claim or claims, if any, shall be governed by the law relating to actions brought pursuant to title 28, United States Code, section 1505. Appellate review of any judgment so entered shall be in the same manner, and subject to the same limitations, as in the case of claims over which the Court of Claims has jurisdiction under section 1491 of title 28, United States Code. Notwithstanding any contract to the contrary, not more than 10 per centum of the amount received or recovered by said tribe in satisfaction of any claim asserted under this section shall be paid to or received by any agent or attorney on account of services rendered in connection with such claim." SEC. 2. Said Act approved June 27, 1947 (61 Stat. 189), is hereby further amended by adding at the end thereof a new section to be designated section 3 and to read as follows: "SEC. 3. Jurisdiction is hereby conferred on the Court of Claims to' determine, notwithstanding any statute of limitations or laches, in any suit instituted pursuant to section 1 of this Act, (1) whether the assignment dated December 1, 1942, accepted and approved December 17, 1942, of oil and gas lease 149-ind-5337, covering the lands denominated '1942 lands' in section 4 of said agreement dated December 1, 1945, as amended, should in law or in equity, taking into consideration such fiduciary relationship as may exist between the United States and the Navajo Tribe, have been accepted by the United States for the account of the Navajo Tribe instead of for its own account, and, if such assignment should have been so accepted, whether the property interest or any part thereof covered by such assignment

Agreement.

Suit for recovery of additional sum.

Jurisdiction.

Interest.

63 Stat. 102.

62 Stat. 940.

Court of Claims. Jurisdiction.

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