Indian Farmers Want USDA to Stop Collecting on Loans By Jack Sullivan, Associated Press Writer, August 12, 2003
In court papers recently filed in U.S. District Court, attorneys for Indian farmers in North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana have argued that the U.S. Agriculture Department should suspend efforts to collect farm debts owed by American Indian farmers until their discrimination lawsuit against the department has been resolved. In a case filed in November 1999 and certified as a class action in December 2001, Indian farmers claim they were unfairly denied loans and loan restructuring in the 1980s and 1990s. Since February 2002, when the appeals court declined to reconsider the ruling to certify the case as a class action, lawyers on both sides have been arguing over how to proceed with the case. USDA lawyers argue that discovery should not move forward until the class's description is settled while attorneys for the plaintiffs argue that discovery should proceed and efforts to collect farm debts suspended.
The USDA can suspend collection work against farmers involved in the class-action lawsuit and has done so in other discrimination cases, attorney Joseph Sellers said in court papers filed this week in U.S. District Court in Washington. Sellers is asking U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan to order a start to discovery, the legal process in which opposing sides are compelled to turn over information. Sellers said there are enough grounds to move ahead now, while further delay would only put more farmers at risk of going out of business before their claims are resolved.
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