SYRACUSE – In a stunning reversal, a federal court ruled yesterday the Cayuga Indians are not entitled to a $248 million land claim judgment awarded them by a lower court.

In a split 2-1 decision, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in the tax case involving the Oneida Indians and the upstate New York city of Sherrill, that said too many years had passed for the Oneidas to claim their reacquired former reservation lands were again sovereign and tax-exempt.

“The present case must be dismissed because the same considerations that doomed the Oneidas’ claim in Sherrill apply with equal force here,” Justice Jose Cabranes wrote.

Justice Cabranes and Justice Rosemary Pooler said those considerations included the passage of so much time; that most of the tribe moved elsewhere; the tribe’s long delay in seeking relief, and the “long-standing, distinctly non-Indian character of the area and its inhabitants.”

As a result, the appeals court reversed and dismissed the Cayuga’s entire 25-year-old land claim. The two judges also concluded that the Cayugas claim for trespass damages could not go forward “for the simple reason that there can be no trespass unless the Cayugas possessed the land in question.”

Justice Janet Hall wrote a lengthy dissent saying she believed her fellow judges were misreading the Sherrill decision and that it did not require dismissal of the claim.

“This is a complete victory, a complete vindication. The game is over. We win,” said attorney William Dorr, who represented Cayuga and Seneca counties. Governor Pataki called it “a tremendous victory for the property owners and taxpayers of central New York.”

Attorney Glenn Feldman, who represented the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma, said the appeals court decision “came out of left field” and was totally unexpected, even in the wake of Sherrill.

“We’re pretty disappointed. We think these two judges interpreted Sherrill far more broadly than the Supreme Court intended,” Mr. Feldman said.

“If this ruling stands up, it will be the death-knell for all Indian land claims based on a historic-taking of land,” said Martin Gold, the attorney representing the Cayuga Indian Nation of New York.