[31 ASR2d 87]
MAUGAOTEGA SAVANE,
Plaintiff
v.
NOA LAFI, POU NOA,
and the members of the NOA FAMILY of Asili, Defendants
High Court of
Land and Titles Division
LT No. 13-96
November 25, 1996
[1] Family members do not waive the right to
claim land as individually owned land or as the family's communal land through
adverse possession simply because the senior matai of the family refuses to take
appropriate action to defend the family's claim to the land. However, family members do waive
the right to claim an interest in land when they fail to take appropriate
action to prosecute or defend the family's claim to the land according to land
registration statutes.
Before KRUSE, Chief Justice, AFUOLA, Associate Judge, and ATIULAGI, Associate Judge.
Counsel: For Plaintiff, Asaua Fuimaono.
For Defendants, Arthur Ripley, Jr.
Order Denying Defendants’ Motion for Reconsideration:
On July 10, 1996, plaintiff
Maugaotega Savane ("Savane"), the senior matai of the Maugaotega Family of
Asili, filed a complaint against Noa Lafi, Pou Noa, and the members of the Noa
family of Asili (collectively, "defendants"), alleging that the defendants were
unlawfully preparing a burial site on land entitled "Vaitai" that the Maugaotega
family owned pursuant to the High Court's August 25, 1992, order disposing of LT
No. 41-91, and pursuant to the Territorial Registrar's registration of the
"Vaitai" land on April 20, 1992.
On July 11, 1996, the court issued
a temporary restraining order against defendants and ordered them, their agents,
employees, servants, relatives and attorneys to refrain from entering land
"Vaitai," to refrain from doing further work on the grave, and to refrain from
burying anyone therein.[31 ASR2d
88]
On October 16, 1996, pursuant to
Rule 56(a) of the Trial Court Rules of Civil Procedure, the court granted
Savane's Motion for Summary Judgment against Defendants on the grounds that
there was no genuine issue of material fact as to who owned title to the
disputed area of Vaitai.
Defendants now move for
reconsideration of the court's judgment, claiming that there are still questions
of fact and law as to (1) whether a family member's right to claim land, as the
family's communal land through adverse possession, is waived when the senior
matai of the family fails to take appropriate action to prosecute or defend the
family's claim to the land; (2) whether a family member's right to claim land as
his individually owned land through adverse possession is waived when the senior
matai of the family fails to take appropriate action to prosecute or defend the
family's claim to the land; (3) whether Mr. and/or Mrs. Sagatu Tevaseu should
have been joined as necessary parties in LT No. 41-91, given that they were
parties in a prior case (LT NO. 44-83) involving the same land, and that they
continued to occupy and cultivate the land for a considerable period of time;
and (4) whether Mr. Sagatu Tevaseu and/or Mrs. Fuliole Tevaseu own the
aforementioned land by adverse possession.
[1] Family
members do not waive the right to claim land as individually owned land or as
the family's communal land through adverse possession simply because the senior
matai of the family refuses to take appropriate action to defend the family's
claim to the land. However, family
members do waive the right to claim an interest in land when they
fail to take appropriate action to prosecute or defend the family's claim to the
land according to land registration statutes. In the instant case, defendants failed
to file an objection to Savane's registration of title to the land Vaitai during
the 60 day notice period after Savane filed an application for
registration. See A.S.C.A. §
37.0103. The court cannot excuse
defendants' failure to adhere to the statutory requirements for asserting their
interests in the land; their claims to ownership are "forever precluded." Ifopo v.
Siatu`u, 12 A.S.R.2d 24, 26 (App. Div. 1989).
We express no opinion as to
whether the Tevaseus should have been joined in LT No. 41-91 or whether the
Tevaseus could have presented, at the time of Savane's registration of the land,
sufficient facts to support a claim of adverse possession of the land. Answers to these questions in favor of
defendants would not disturb our conclusion that defendants' claims to the land
are precluded with the lawful registration of the land Vaitai with the
Territorial Registrar. Defendants'
claims to the land are barred.[31 ASR2d 89]
The motion for reconsideration is,
therefore, denied.
It is so ordered.