Strate v. A-1 Contractors

Gisela Fredericks (plaintiff), a non-Indian, was in a car accident with Lyle Stockert (defendant), a non-Indian employee driving a gravel truck for non-Indian business A-1 Contractors (defendant), on a public highway running through the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation but owned and maintained by North Dakota under a federally granted right-of-way. Fredericks sued in tribal court, which sustained jurisdiction at both the trial and appellate level; A-1 sought a federal declaratory judgment that the tribal court lacked jurisdiction, which the district court denied but the Eighth Circuit reversed, and the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari.