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By FELICIA FONSECA
Associated Press
Today's News-Herald
Published Friday, February 24, 2012 11:00 PM MST

FLAGSTAFF — Attorneys for a Las Vegas developer argued Friday that his constitutional rights were violated when a northwestern Arizona tribe declared eminent domain over a management contract for the Grand Canyon Skywalk.

But attorneys for the Hualapai Tribe contend that federal court is not the proper venue for litigating the action taken by the Tribal Council earlier this month. They urged U.S. District Judge David Campbell in Phoenix to reject David Jin's request for a temporary restraining order and stay the case to allow Jin to pursue remedies in tribal court.

“This action is another attempt to convince this court to ignore the sovereignty of the tribe by enjoining its legislative and judicial authority over the exercise of its constitutional power of eminent domain,” the tribe's attorneys wrote in court documents.

Campbell did not immediately issue a ruling, instead taking the matter under advisement.

The two sides have been in a similar situation before. Nearly a year ago, Jin’s attorneys asked Campbell to keep the tribe from severing an agreement his company reached with the tribe's business arm in 2003 to build, manage and operate the Skywalk — a horseshoe-shaped glass bridge that juts out 70 feet from the Grand Canyon on the tribe's reservation.

Campbell dismissed the lawsuit without addressing Jin's claims, saying the businessman could return to federal court only after exhausting remedies in the Hualapai court in Peach Springs.

An action Jin brought in tribal court to force arbitration also was dismissed with the judge's ruling that she did not have jurisdiction over the case because tribal officials named as defendants did not waive sovereign immunity.

The dispute stems from allegations by Jin that the tribe hasn't paid him what he's owed for his investment in the Skywalk. The tribe said it ultimately cut his company, Grand Canyon Skywalk Development, out of overseeing the popular tourist attraction because Jin failed to complete a visitor center and hasn’t accounted for funding.

The tribe’s eminent domain ordinance gives its business arm 180 days to provide $11 million in compensation to Jin, a figure the tribe said came from an independent appraisal, but extensions can be granted by a tribal court if good cause is shown. Jin contends just compensation would be closer to $100 million.

His attorneys argued Friday that the contract doesn't grant the tribe civil jurisdiction over a non-Native "who never expressly consented to the tribe's exercise of civil jurisdiction," and that constitutional issues should be addressed in federal court. Jin's attorneys say they believe tribal remedies already have been exhausted.

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