Karen Maybee and her husband, Scott, live in Montana. When Karen filed for divorce, Scott went to the Seneca Nation of Indians tribal court in New York, where he is a member, and obtained a judgment that Scott was solely entitled to various assets and income supposedly tied to the tribe, and that the Montana court could not even consider those assets in deciding how to divide the marital estate. Scott’s attorneys then asked the Montana court to honor that tribal court decree. Baldwin Law argued for Karen that the tribal court judgment did not restrict the district court’s ability to apply Montana law to Scott’s assets and income. The district court agreed that it was not bound by the tribal court judgment and would apply Montana law without the limitations Scott sought.
