Indian Sovereignty Snags Woman

Eighty-year-old Dorothy Tollett gambled so often at the Coeur d’Alene Casino that she received a free room in 2007. But on that final visit, before the retired nurse’s aide placed her first bet, she tripped on a hotel bedspread and fell into a complicated and largely overlooked legal quagmire: sovereign immunity. While Tollett endured two broken arms, a “horrible” medical experience and months living essentially as a paraplegic while her bones slowly mended, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe successfully fought the woman’s lawsuit, first by requiring her Spokane lawyer to earn certification to represent clients in its tribal court, then forcing the suit’s dismissal by asserting sovereign immunity rather than arguing the facts of the case. Even the tribe’s own judge called its approach to the matter “Draconian”/ Thomas Clouse , SR. More here. (Colin Mulvany SR photo)

Question: Have you ever had problems at one of the local casinos?