The Kayenta Township
P.O. Box 1490
Kayenta, AZ 86033
(928) 697-8451
www.kayentatownship-nsn.gov
PRESS RELEASE
July 11, 2024
On June 12, 2024, pursuant to Court order, the Kayenta Township locked the business gates to Chief Propane in Kayenta, Arizona. In a Forcible Entry and Detainer action brought in 2020 by the Kayenta Township Commission against Royal Churchill d/b/a Chief Propane, a defunct Arizona corporation, and against Royal Chief Towing LLC, and Chief Propane & Accessories Inc. (collectively “Chief Propane”), in Case No. KY-CV-026-2020, on May 14, 2024, the Court ruled in favor of the Commission and issued a Writ of Restitution and Warrant of Removal to restore possession of the property to the Kayenta Township.
For almost 15 years, Chief Propane operated profitable towing and propane businesses on the Township’s lands without a business site lease.
The District Court also awarded the Commission $720,000 in damages, based on the holdover rent provision of Chief Propane’s business site lease, which was terminated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 2010 for Chief Propane’s material default of the lease terms.
Because Chief Propane was a defunct Arizona corporation at the time of the lease cancellation, the Kayenta District Court held that Royal Churchill was the successor lessee on the cancelled business site lease as a matter of law, with the individual responsibility to pay the Township the holdover rent. Chief Propane did not appeal the decision to the Navajo Nation Supreme Court.
After 2010, Chief Propane had repeatedly failed to provide the Kayenta Township requisite documentation to obtain a new business site lease, failed to pay rent, and twice ignored civil trespass orders issued against it under the Township’s Civil Trespass Ordinance. Both civil trespass orders were enforced by separate lawsuits brought by the Commission in Kayenta District Court.
One of those lawsuits is still pending. The Commission prevailed on the other lawsuit and was awarded a little over $90,000 against Chief Propane in a judgment entered by the District Court in 2020.
The Kayenta Township is currently inventorying the property remaining on the premises and anyone in possession of propane tanks and/or equipment from Chief Propane should promptly contact the Township administration to have such property inventoried.
Kayenta Township is a home rule municipality and political subdivision of the Navajo Nation, with the “duty authority, and responsibility to perform all functions necessary for local self-government.” 2 N.N.C. §§ 4082-4084. The Kayenta Township has jurisdiction over lands specifically withdrawn for the Kayenta Township by the Navajo Nation Council, as confirmed by the Navajo Nation Supreme Court in Kayenta Township Comm’n v. Ward, 9 Nav. R. 481 (Nav. Sup. Ct. 2011), which stated: “By broad grant of power, the Township’s control over its withdrawn land includes the right to govern its lands according to local ordinances and necessarily includes the possessory right” to its lands. Id. at 486.
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