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

  Download original PDF

Shoniber v Shoniber [1971] TTLawRp 26; 5 TTR 532 (23 June 1971)

5 TTR 532

SARI SHONIBER, Appellant

v.

HERBERT SHONIBER, Appellee

Civil Appeal No. 58

Appellate Division of the High Court

June 23, 1971

Trial Court Opinion-4 T.T.R. 333

Appeal from entry of summary judgment. The Appellate Division of the High Court, D. Kelly Turner, Associate Justice, held that entry of summary judgment was proper where both issues of fact suggested by the appellant were not applicable to the case as a matter of law.

1. Ponape Land Law-German Land Title-Succession

Where land in question was held under the standard form German Land Deed the German law of inheritance which allowed inheritance from his natural father by an adopted child applied and not the local custom prohibiting inheritance by a natural son who had inherited from his adoptive parents. (1 T.T.C. Sec. 102)

2. Ponape Land Law-German Land Title-Wills

Land in Ponape could not be transferred by will under the German land code and only a limited transfer under special conditions was permitted under the Japanese administration.

Before TURNER and BROWN, Associate Justices

TURNER, Associate Justice

This is an appeal from a summary judgment entered in behalf of the plaintiff-appellee and declaring him owner, as against the defendant-appellant, of a parcel of land in Porakied, Kolonia, Ponape District.

The land was held in 1912 under the standard form German Land Deed, No. 304/305. The deed has been lost but the parties agree the last registered owner was Namwei Shoniber, who died about 1947, and that Ernest Shoniber was the eldest son of Namwei and the appellee, Herbert, was the eldest son of Ernest.

Under Ponapean land law, beginning with the German administration, ownership and inheritance were governed by the written title document. Under that law, there is no doubt, nor issue between the parties, that the plaintiff is the present owner of the land in question.

Appellant, however, relies upon a special circumstance which, he claims, does not make German law applicable in this case. Plaintiff's father, Ernest, the oldest son of Namwei, was adopted "out" of the Shoniber family and inherited land from his adoptive parents.

Ponapean custom, appellant argues, prevents a child from inheriting from his natural father when he has inherited from his adoptive parents. Appellant urges summary judgment was improper because he was thus denied an opportunity to prove the applicable custom.