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Reports of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands |
TRIAL DIVISION OF THE HIGH COURT
TRUK DISTRICT
Civil Action No. 386
ONEITAM (Representing his Lineage)
Plaintiff
v.
SUAIN (Representing his Lineage) Defendant
and
NIMINOUN and ARITA (Intervenors, Defendants)
July 19, 1968
Action to determine ownership of land on Fefan Island, Truk Lagoon. The Trial Division of the High Court, D. Kelly Associate Justice, held that had lost the rights to certain portions of the land in question, which had been legally established in Japanese times, under the doctrine of open, continuous, hostile and adverse possession but was still entitled to the remaining portions.
1. Truk Custom-Repurchase of Land
Taking lands as spoils of war and the subsequent repurchase by the losers was common enough under ancient Trukese custom.
2. Custom-Applicability
Delving into the past of a culture with unrecorded history requires reliance upon legend and lore handed down from one generation to another and interpreted in accordance with the predilections of terested parties and such hearsay has probative value only as to the broad outlines over which there is very little dispute.
3. Custom-Applicability
The High Court, although accepting legend and lore as a sometime unavoidable necessity, nevertheless, has consistently refused to reach into a distant past to correct any injustices which may have existed.
4. Former Administrations-Official Acts
The High Court has consistently held many times that it will recognize the official determinations of the Japanese administration.
5. Former Administrations-Official Acts
The decisions of the Japanese administration in adjudicating the disputes over the eight parcels of land concerned in the case in issue provided the final and lawful determination of the ownership rights to such lands as of the commencement of the American administration and any claim adverse to such decisions must arise from some subsequent rearrangement of rights during the American administration.
6. Real Property-Adjudication of Ownership
At no time during the American administration have local magistrates had the authority to adjudicate interests in land except to order temporary possession pending suit in a court, now the High Court, having jurisdiction.
7. Real Property-Quiet Title-Presumption of Ownership
Presumptive rights in land arising from long possession and use together with delay on the part of the lawful owner in asserting his title, have often been found to be sufficient grounds for taking title from a legal owner and granting it to the user.
8. Real Property-Quiet Title-Presumption of Ownership
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