Collete, Barry and Corey Coggins filed a lawsuit on July 22 against Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, EBCI Principal Chief Michell Hicks and EBCI Secretary of Operations Anthony Sequoyah. Given tribal council’s Aug. 2 passage of an ordinance prohibiting bear caging, it appears EBCI officials could be taken to court over another land-related dispute.
The complainants, alleging breach of contract and lease, are seeking prospective injunctive relief “against tribal officials acting in excess of their lawful authority,” according to the document.
An injunction cannot be declared against the tribe as a sovereign nation, though plaintiffs argued the Eastern Band had waived some of this immunity “relating to insurance covering the violations by Defendants for breach of the lease and under the Indian Civil Rights Act.” The Cogginses are lessees of an approximately 25-acre EBCI parcel per a Sept. 19, 2016, agreement with the tribe. The lawsuit claimed an unauthorized removal of dirt from five leased acres runs counter to a February 2026 amendment formalizing plaintiffs’ rights of ingress, egress, parking and development.
