Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback Reports of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands

  Download original PDF

Guerrero, In re [1968] TTLawRp 25; 3 TTR 546 (15 May 1968)

3 TTR 546

In the Matter of the Estate of
MARIANO DE LEON GUERRERO, Deceased

Civil Action No. 221

Trial Division of the High Court
Mariana Islands District

May 15, 1968

Action for distribution of decedent's lands. The Trial Division of the High Court, E. P. Furber, Temporary Judge, held that under custom on Saipan where a man inherits land from his father and dies leaving a widow and children, the widow is not entitled to any of the land as a matter of right.

Chamorro Custom - Widow's Rights

Under Chamorro custom where a man inherits land from his father and dies leaving a widow and children, the widow is not entitled to any of the land as a matter of right.

FURBER, Temporary Judge

FINDING OF FACT

1. The petitioner Ana G. Fajardo has not sustained the burden of proving that she is entitled to all the lands of the deceased under an alleged will.

2. About June 1931 Uehara Uto, a Japanese national, and the deceased, acting for his father Joaquin De Leon Guerrero, made an oral agreement that Uehara Uto, in return for 1200 yen paid the deceased, might occupy and use lot 1890 until he died or moved away. This agreement was terminated by Uehara Uto's death during World War II.

3. The Government of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands by Exchange Agreement No. 111 of April 30, 1954, undertook to convey to Francisco S. Pangelinan, representing the heirs of Jose W. Pangelinan deceased, as Land Trustee, said lot 1890 as well as other land and by Grant of Public Domain Lands dated April 16, 1956, purported to convey said lot to the heirs of Jose W. Pangelinan, deceased represented by Francisco S. Pangelinan as Land Trustee; the description used in said deed, however, includes about 5,086 square meters of lot 1888, but the Government had no rights of ownership in either said lot 1890 or said lot 1888.

4. The petitioner Ana G. Fajardo has for some years acquiesced in her brother Francisco C. De Leon Guerrero's using the deceased's former land at the Golf Course (being lot 1742) and he has recently acquiesced in the petitioner using said lots 1888 and 1890 and he joined in executing mortgage of a substantial part of lot 1888 to the Economic Development Fund, all the proceeds of which went to the petitioner and her husband.

5. To divide the deceased's lands as follows will give each of his two children land of the same value, disregarding the mortgage on a substantial part of lot 1888:-,

To Ana G. Fajardo:-

• Lots 1888 and 1890 at Gualo Rai, and
• Lot 16 in Block 81 in Chalan Kanoa Village.

To Francisco C. De Leon Guerrero:-

• Lot 1742 at the Golf Course.

OPINION