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Court Vacates Casino Judgment Against Nebraska Tribe13 September 2001LINCOLN, Nebraska –– As reported by the Associated Press: "A federal appeals court on Wednesday vacated a $6.4 million judgment in favor of a company that operated a casino for the Omaha tribe of Nebraska. "The ruling stemmed from a failed attempt by Dallas-based Missouri River Services Inc., know as MRS, to build and operate a $3 million casino on the Omaha reservation in northeast Nebraska in 1987. "Federal legislation passed in 1988 sharply limited types of games that could be operated at such facilities, and since Nebraska barred casino gambling, the tribe's casino could only offer high-stakes bingo. "The struggling casino closed in less than a year. "But when Iowa legalized casino gambling, the tribe opened a casino across the Missouri River in Onawa, Iowa, in 1992. "In 1997 MRS objected to the tribe's new casino, claiming it still had a binding contract with the tribe and should have been operator of the new facility. That dispute went to an arbitrator, who awarded MRS the judgment. "In Wednesday's ruling, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said arbitrators' authority to interpret the provisions of contracts, while broad, `is not unlimited.' "The language of the contract could not reasonably be understood to include proceeds from the second casino, the court said…" |