Tribal Land Trespass-Unjust Enrichment

7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chipp v. Enbridge Energy Company, Inc.

Case No.: 23-2309

Officials: Easterbrook, Scudder, and St. Eve, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Tribal Land Trespass-Unjust Enrichment

Enbridge Energy Company, Inc., operates a pipeline that transports oil and natural gas liquids between the United States and Canada. Approximately twelve miles of the pipeline traverse land within a Native American reservation in northern Wisconsin. In 2013, the company’s rights-of-way over certain reservation parcels expired. During the years that followed, the tribal band acquired ownership interests in several of those parcels. Despite the expiration of its easements, the company continued operating the pipeline without obtaining the tribe’s renewed consent. After negotiations failed, the tribal band filed suit, alleging trespass and public nuisance. The band also asserted that erosion near a river crossing created a significant risk of a pipeline rupture.

The Western District of Wisconsin granted summary judgment in favor of the tribal band on its trespass and unjust enrichment claims and rejected the company’s breach-of-contract counterclaim. Following a bench trial, the court awarded restitution for the company’s past trespass, ordered disgorgement of future profits, and issued an injunction requiring the company to cease pipeline operations across the affected parcels within three years. The injunction also required the company to implement monitoring and shutdown measures to address the alleged public nuisance. Both parties appealed, and the district court stayed the shutdown portion of the injunction pending appeal.

The Seventh Circuit found that the company was trespassing and agreed that restitution and injunctive relief were appropriate remedies. However, it vacated the district court’s calculation of restitution and its three-year shutdown deadline, remanding for a reassessment of the remedies that would account for the public interest and the company’s ongoing efforts to reroute the pipeline. The court further ruled that federal statutory law displaced the tribal band’s federal common law public nuisance claim and vacated the corresponding injunction.

Decided 07/30/26

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