Attorney General v. Hermes

The trial court issued an order determining that defendants were liable to plaintiffs for conversion of fish taken under color of tribal fishing rights reserved to the Chippewa Indians by treaty with the United States government. The court ruled that defendants’ tribal memberships, conferred upon them by mistake, could not immunize them from civil liability for unlawful fishing. Defendants appeal as of right.

This appeal compels us to re-examine the nature of the state’s property interest in Great Lakes fish and to determine what, if any, civil remedies are available to the state when this…